Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Texas State Dental Board says it can’t stop the dental abuse and Medicaid fraud until someone complains, well someone complain already! Here’s help.
Texas Dental Board Complaint Process
Texas Dental Laws, Rules and Regulations
Complaints: complaints@tsbde.texas.gov
E-mailing the Board:
Indicate the intent of your communication in the subject and body of your email. This will help prevent our Security System from flagging your email as possible spam and deleting it.
Ms. Abigail Gutierrez, Administrative Assistant
Phone: (512) 475-2019
Fax: (512) 463-7452
Ms. Erica Bommarito, Administrative Assistant Phone: (512) 475-1996
Fax: (512) 463-7452
Ms. Jennifer Carriker, Compliance Officer, Administrative Assistant Phone: (512) 305-8991
Fax: (512) 463-7452
Ms. Gutierrez, Ms. Bommarito and Ms. Carriker can assist with:
Contacting the Director of Enforcement
How to file a compliant or check on the status of an on-going complaint Information about a Closed or Dismissed Case
Board Order Compliance
(For Conditional Dismissal Compliance - Ms. Debbie Powell, Legal Assistant - (512) 475-0982)
Other Agency divisions and contact information
Texas State Dental Board Information:
Phone: (512) 463-6400 (8am - 5pm, Monday - Friday, Except Holidays)Main Fax: (512) 463-7452
Open Records Fax: (512) 532-0637Open Records Requests: openrecords@tsbde.texas.gov
Mailing Address:
Texas State Board of Dental ExaminersFile a Consumer Complaint with Texas Attorney General here
333 Guadalupe, Tower 3, Suite 800
Austin, Texas 78701-3942
File a Medicaid fraud complaint with Texas here
Report the fraud, reap the benefits-share in a portion of the recovery here.
Write your state lawmaker here
File a complaint with your local District Attorney or County Attorney, you can find them in the phone book.
Don’t forget to follow up all complaints with further letters and phone calls.
American Dental Partners, Inc and Tooth Doctor for Kids Spreading from Arizona to Texas
A Tooth Doctor for Kids/Braces For Less with 5 locations in Arizona and 7 locations in and around Houston and 2 locations in San Antonio Texas is coming to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
With 9 locations already at work in Texas, Tooth Doctor for Kids has six more locations scheduled to open between August 2011 and late fall 2011, as seen here on their website.
Their website says they offer; Dental checkups, Cleanings, and x-rays; Dental Fillings and Crowns; Sedation; Sealants; Fluoride Treatment; Space Maintainers.
What is hard to find on their website is the name of the dentists treating the children and if those dentists are general dentists or pediatric dentists. Website design and clinic décor is the main misleading marketing to parents, implying the dentists spent an extra 2 years of dental school to become pedodontists when they did not.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
CSHM–Small Smiles Dental Centers are among exclusive group of 19 under a “Quality of Care” Corporate Integrity Agreement with US government
According to the OIG Quality of Care CIA’s:
Monday, August 22, 2011
Texas Board Dental of Examiners allows non US residents to scam taxpayers out of $22 million dollars. Cheap labor from across the boarder helps make the Navarro brothers two of the wealthiest Orthodontists in the US. Texas Dental Board refused to answer these questionable practices.
WFAA
Posted on August 18, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Updated today at 3:16 PM
DALLAS - Many parents know it can cost as much as $5,000 to put braces on a child's teeth. Despite the high cost, it's a financial sacrifice some families make for a child's appearance.
Rarely are braces a health issue. But, while some families struggle to pay for braces, under Medicaid in Texas, tens of thousands of children get braces for free.
Last year, Texas spent $184 million on braces under Medicaid. And while Texas spent as much as the rest of the nation combined, some states, like Michigan and Kansas, spent zero.
Penny v. OrthAlliance, Jordan v. OrthAlliance & Glower v OrthAlliance- Corporate Dentistry Ruled Illegal
From Hospital and Health Systems Group – June 2008
One example of provider relations going horribly wrong is the OrthAlliance experience. OrthAlliance is an orthodontic practice management company that follows a model common in the industry: the company first purchases the assets and leaseholds held by individual orthodontists or professional orthodontic corporations; then it enters into an agreement with the orthodontist or practice to
provide comprehensive practice management services; and finally, the practice
management company employs the orthodontist’s existing nonprofessional staff. It appears, however, that the arrangements were not as financially successful as several of OrthAlliance’s orthodontists had hoped, and the relationships between OrthAlliance and many of those providers eventually broke down. By 2001, approximatelyfifty-six OrthAlliance-affiliated practitioners and/or their professional corporations had filed lawsuits in eleven states.
2003 Penny v OrthAlliance
Corporate Dentistry Ruled Illegal
From Orthalliance 10-k Annual Report
On March 26, 2003, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in ruling on the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment in a case captioned Penny v. OrthAlliance, Inc. , held that, when construed together, the purchase agreements and service agreements between the plaintiffs and OrthAlliance and the employment agreements between the individual plaintiffs and their practices violated Texas statutes prohibiting the unauthorized practice of dentistry and were therefore invalid. In the court’s view, the interrelationship among these agreements allowed OrthAlliance to own, maintain or operate an office or place of business in which it employs or engages the plaintiffs to practice dentistry, in violation of Texas law. In reaching its conclusion, the court noted that OrthAlliance leases or owns and maintains the office space and tangible assets used in the plaintiffs’ practices and provides comprehensive practice
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Check the Senators Cardin’s campaign contributions!
Yes, average wait time is 7 minutes! Yes, 100% approval rating. Since the asked two people, whom they probably paid!!!
Senator, you may be a fine man, you may be a smart man. But no one would know by listening to what you are saying today.
What are you going to say when this company ends up under Federal investigation like Small Smiles? Will you tell us how great the place is then? Did you even check to see if they were being investigated before stepping up to that podium?
Since you want to take credit for this house of horrors, are you going to take the blame as well?
Maybe we should send all the complaints to your office!!
Hey Senator Ben Cardin–WAKE UP!
Senator Cardin’s boastful public statement from August 18, 2011.
Maryland Ranks First In Providing Child Dental Care
Armando TrullAugust 18, 2011 - Four years ago, 12-year-old Diamonte Driver from Prince George's County died from a brain infection created by an abscessed tooth because his mother was unable to get him adequate dental care. This death spurred Maryland to address this inadequacy, and now, things in the state are vastly different.
Maryland was ranked first in providing dental care for children in a recent Pew Center study.
