Monday, August 20, 2012

Director and Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at USC School of Dentistry and LA County/USC Medical Center under investigation over death of patient

I'm not trying to get into the politics between oral surgeons and dental anesthesiologists, but what I don't understand is if the dental anesthesiologists want stricter guidelines and they are not asking for it to be mandatory for an office to use a dental anesthesiologists, I don't see what’s the big deal.

I know that the problem mostly involves general dentists trying to play DA by upping dosages - clearly these are the people killing folks, but what harm can come from MORE SAFE PRACTICES?

Are Oral Surgeons afraid their pockets won't stay as fat! Sorry people, someone's life is a wee bit more important than getting rich, especially when you're going to loose all that dough eventfully when you kill someone like this dick weed.

California Dental Board Investigation - Dennis-Duke Yamashita

Anyone want to bet the only sanctions taken will be for record keeping?

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Who is Legally Liable in Texas’s Dental Drama?

Who's Legally Liable in State's Dental Drama?

The state's sweeping Medicaid fraud investigation into dentists and orthodontists accused of giving unnecessary treatments to poor children has left Texas attorneys with lots of questions.
Who’s accountable for the Texas orthodontic patients abandoned mid-treatment when the state pulled the plug on their doctors? Could the state be held legally liable for giving doctors permission to perform medically unnecessary dental procedures in the first place? And ultimately, does the state’s method of cracking down on providers — halting funding the moment an investigation is opened — grant sufficient due process to the accused, or could the government be counter-sued for destroying the businesses of providers later found innocent?

Looking for ways to curb the state's budget woes, lawmakers have directed health investigators to amp up their pursuit of fraud and to oust providers who purposefully filed medically unnecessary or fraudulent Medicaid claims. Many of the accused providers have their funding frozen, and can't treat Medicaid patients in the meantime. In the words of Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, “using patients to game the system – and then abandoning those patients when you get caught – is shameful abuse.”

NCDR, LLC–Kool Smiles looking to infect adult dental care in Texas-Under the name Resolution Dental

Kool Smiles and NCDR, LLC are venturing over into adult care in Odessa, Texas – buyer beware! Operating under the name Resolution Dental, they are seeking applicants and offering a $25k sign on bonus. Here is the job posting.
While the brakes were put on to the grand openings of their newest Medicaid mills in Texas, its full steam ahead for at least one Resolution Dental office.
They don’t want applicants to know who they are really going to be employed by as Paul has set up an innocuous email address -resolutiondentalhr@gmail.com
Most of the job have you contact Paul Court at 925-407-5383. Paul is a dentist recruiter for NCDR, LLC
Ncdr, L.L.C.
1575 Northside Drive Building 400
Atlanta, Georgia 30318
United States
www.ncdrllc.com
According to Zoom Info, Paul’s past employment consists of:
Employment History



  • Financial Services Manager Robert Half International Inc
  • Branch Manager Accountemps
  • Manager, Dental Staffing Kool Smiles P.C
  • General Manager U.S. Department of Education
  • Friday, August 17, 2012

    Police looking into kidnapping of children by All About Dentistry - Dallas Texas!

    Thanks to a reader !

    Police investigate Medicaid 'recruitment' claims

    Updated 1:52 p.m., Friday, August 17, 2012

    Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Police-investigate-Medicaid-recruitment-claims-3796303.php#ixzz23rExCRX2

     

    DALLAS (AP) — Police in Dallas are investigating allegations that children are being offered cash and gifts to come in for dental work funded by Medicaid.

    The allegations reported by Dallas television station WFAA include claims from children and parents that they were "recruited" by dental practices. One teenager told the television station for its Thursday broadcast that she was paid $10 to be driven to a clinic, All About Dentistry in southeast Dallas, where she had seven fillings.

    Afterward, the receptionist asked Keke Gray about her parents.

    "(The receptionist) said, 'You don't have those kind of parents who would come up here and complain or anything like that, right?'" said Gray, 17.

    Federal law prohibits the solicitation of Medicaid patients. Stephanie Goodman, spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said federal regulations are intended to allow Medicaid providers and other doctors to compete on equal footing.

    Dallas Police spokesman Lt. Scott Walton said police were looking into the reports.

    "The circumstances of these incidents are being investigated to determine what criminal offense occurred," he said. "Once this determination is made, appropriate action will be taken."

    Messages were left Friday by The Associated Press for the owner of All About Dentistry, Dr. Hamid Farahani, at two of his offices.

    Farahani told WFAA that he uses unmarked vans to bring children from southeast Dallas neighborhoods to his clinics. Others who have previously spoken to the station have said they were aware of cash, gift cards and meals being offered for new patients.

    One woman was recorded on tape being stopped by a van from Access Dental with her kids by her side.

    "Today he offered me a free pizza dinner," Juanita Bonner said.

    The Texas Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to questions about whether it is investigating. Alper Ozinal, a spokesman for the federal Health and Human Services Department, said in a statement that it had seen several instances of improper Medicaid billing.

    "We are working with states to fight any potential fraud — including working with states to audit dental providers, referring potential fraud to law enforcement, educating dental providers on proper billing, and more closely managing the billing processes around dental products," Ozinal said in a statement.

    Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Police-investigate-Medicaid-recruitment-claims-3796303.php#ixzz23rF2uz4P

    Kool Smiles–NCDR, LLC cuts this week–No more “recruiting” efforts

    Kool Smiles cutting spending. Besides a halt to all new clinic openings/construction in Texas, this week, now more cuts – see below.
    Dear NCDR and Kool Smiles colleagues:
    Our CRS program (which includes CRS’s, CSM’s and CE’s) has played a very important role in building Kool Smiles over the years, and is an important part of our culture. Our CRS colleagues have helped create a dental home for thousands of patients. Unlike many of our competitors, our CRS's have played by the rules, and we appreciate it. 
    However, regulations and other scrutiny of CRS programs are increasing rapidly: CRS programs are now prohibited or severely restricted in states with nearly half our offices. CRS programs are also under rapidly increasing pressure from muckraking journalists, as well as trial attorneys making bogus claims against us. We expect this scrutiny of CRS programs to expand to other states, as well, and it helps make Kool Smiles an easy target for very damaging attacks on the company, as we've seen in Texas, even though we are "the good guys" in the industry.
    So, unfortunately, we've had to make the difficult decision to eliminate the CRS program, effective September 14, with the exception of the four CSM’s in Texas, where we have important ongoing government relations initiatives. CRS's, CSM’s and CE’s will receive a severance package based on years of service, and will have 30 days of transition time.
    During the next 30 days, CRS's will transfer their most important local relationships to local OMs. We will generate leads with increased use of efficient traditional and new media. We will also continue to educate our patients through media, social media and local public relations programs, and we are establishing a small local community relations fund for each office. We will provide more details on this over the next couple of weeks.
    The CRS program, and the contributions our CRS's have made to the company, are integral parts of our culture, and this is a painful decision, but one that we need to make to help ensure the health and continued growth of the company going forward.  I know this is difficult for everyone involved, but I ask you to help make the transition happen professionally, and to remain focused on providing great care to our patients, every day.
    Thank you,
    Jeff Lane
    President
    NCDR LLC







     
    CRS = Community Relations Specialist. They drum up new business, basically. They are not anywhere near as aggressive as the 'recruiters' for some other corporate dental chains and they certainly aren't kidnapping kids, but they do go to schools, daycares, etc.
    CE = Community Educator. Similar role, but they do more education-oriented stuff like teaching kids about proper dental care...with the motive of getting them to come in to a KS office.
    CSM = Community Smile Maker - Basically a CRS by another name.
    I think this could be happening, in part, because of the “recruiting-kidnapping” that a few notable dental clinics in Texas are partaking in these days.



    Dr. Ralph Green of ReachOut Healthcare America into stem cells? It appears so.

    ralphGreen ImageBW

    Website
    www.StemSave.com

    Dr. Ralph Green, DDS, of Reachout Healthcare America is into stem cells these days. 

    StemSave.com lists Dr. Green as part of the Business Advisory Council. This is scary to me. What is scarier, is how the following individuals hooked up and what is their real plan? Research grants?

    As part of the management team, along with Dr. Ralph Green are co-founders of Stemsave -  Arthur E. Greco and Dr. Gregory Chotkowski, DMD

    Dr. Ralph Green is up to his eyeballs in corruption at ReachOut Healthcare America, so when you see him involved in something, one automatically assumes if it’s not a scam now, it soon will be.

    StemSave Business Advisory Council:

    Dr. Ralph Green, DDS, MBA - has enjoyed an extensive and distinguished career in dentistry and business. Dr. Green received his Doctorate in Dental Surgery from the University of Iowa and his MBA from Boston University. In addition to establishing a private dental practice, Dr. Green was a faculty member of Tufts University’s Dental School as well as the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene and currently serves as a trustee of The Forsyth Institute in Boston, MA. Dr. Green has conducted extensive research in the areas of bone growth, Implants, resins, tissue engineering and oncology. As a result of his research Dr. Green has developed and holds several patents and has successfully stewarded several devices through the FDA registration process.

    In addition to his extensive experience in dentistry and research, Dr. Green has a long and successful career in business. In addition to maintaining an active private practice; Ralph Green DDS PC, Dr. Green is also the Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Reachout Healthcare America (RHA) providing healthcare services to the brave men and women serving in our country’s armed forces and serving underserved communities in twenty one states.

    Prior to RHA, Dr. Green has been directly involved in numerous start up and early phase companies. Most prominently, Dr. Green was the founder of Nobel USA, the largest dental Implant company in the world today. Dr. Green invented and patented several advancements to implant technology and founded Technology Corporation of America which he later sold and is now part of BIOGEN.

    More recently Dr. Green served as President of ZILA Pharmaceuticals, a division of ZILA Inc., a publicly traded company in the cancer diagnostic arena where in addition to the USA; Dr. Green successfully registered and launched the products in the United States, Europe, China and numerous other Asian countries. Dr. Green has served as the President-Elect of the Dental Manufacturers of America, the largest organization of dental industry companies. He is a member of the American Dental Association, American Association for Dental Research and the International Associations for Dental Research. He served on the Board of the Oral Health of America and presently has been one of the founders of the Arizona School for Oral Health.

    Phone
    877-783-6728
    E-mail
    Ralph@StemSave.com

    Also listed on the Business Advisory Team are:

    Smiles Brands, Inc. job listing appears to be retail sales position within dental care - disguise as a Patient Service Rep.

    sblogo

     

     

     

    Patient Services Representative (Call Center)

    City: Plano
    State: TX
    Company: Smile Brands Inc.
    REQ ID: 12-0491

    If you have customer service or dental experience, this is a great opportunity for you. We are currently seeking self-motivated , high energy and enthusiastic people to join our growing call center in Plano, TX.

    The primary role of the Inbound Patient Services Representative will be to assist patients who need to complete dental treatment in process and schedule appointments with our dental offices.

    • Assist patients with questions or concerns [treatment advice?]
    • Track calls and appointments in the lead database [huh? leads?]
    • Record, report and maintain patient information as required
    • Achieve assigned individual and team objectives [i.e. you and your team will be required to meet quotas]
    • Provide excellent customer service


    Requirements

    • 1+ years Customer Service experience
    • Dental experience preferred [what about a doctorate of dentistry?]
    • Strong written and verbal communication skills
    • Bi-lingual – Spanish
    • Computer skills MS Office – Word, Excel & Outlook
    • Type 35 words (minimum)
    • College coursework/degree preferred
    • A comprehensive benefits package is offered, which includes: Medical, Vision, Life Insurance and 401K. Equal Opportunity Employer.

    Job posting

    Wednesday, August 15, 2012

    Texas - Let the indictments begin–Dr. Michael D. Goodwin

    USA v Michael D. Goodwin – Complaint August 15, 2012

    USA v Michael D. Goodwin case 2-12-CR-097

     

    Amarillo Orthodontist Michael Goodwin Charged in Medicaid Fraud Scheme

    Michael David Goodwin is scheduled to be arraigned August 23, 2012 @ 9:30AM before Magistrate Judge Clinton Averitte.

    An Amarillo orthodontist has been indicted in a Medicaid fraud scheme.

    Sixty-three year-old Dr. Michael David Goodwin, who practices in Amarillo, Texas and Crown Point, Indiana, has been charged with 11 counts of health care fraud in a federal indictment.

    According to Wednesday’s federal indictment, between 90 and 95 percent of Goodwin’s orthodontics’ patients were Medicaid beneficiaries.

    The indictment alleges that from January 2008 through March 2011, Goodwin fraudulently billed the Texas Medicaid program for more than $2 million for services which he claimed were provided, when he knew that some services were not medically necessary, or were provided by dental assistants and no dentist or orthodontist was there to supervise.

    According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Goodwin practiced two weeks per month at each practice, and would regularly schedule more than 100 patients per day, and intentionally scheduled large numbers of Medicaid patients for days when he was to be out of town.

    Goodwin would then reportedly have dental assistants perform impermissible acts such as comprehensive examinations, diagnoses, and treatment planning for Medicaid patients, knowing that only licensed dentists were permitted to perform those services.

    He then allegedly billed Medicaid as the performing provider for all services.

    The indictment also asserts that he had his employees submit forms that fraudulently stated that some patients had a medical need for braces, when they actually were for cosmetic purposes only. Goodwin also supposedly hired substitute general dentists that were not enrolled Medicaid providers.

    The U.S. Attorney’s office says that Medicaid patients were not treated equally, as Goodwin personally examined patients who paid cash for their treatment, while he reportedly only examined Medicaid patients every third appointment or less.

    Each health care fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted. Goodwin could also be required to forfeit more than $1,558,000, as well as the more than $244,000 seized in May and July 2011 from Goodwin’s accounts.

    JP Morgan Chase v Michael D. Goodwin, Patricia Goodwin and Chenoa Texas, LLC  – Complaint March 6,  2012
        Summons in JPMC v Goodwin March 6, 2012
        Joint Settlement Conference Report August 3, 2012

    Attention Dental Board Directors and Investigators

    If you don't have enough sense to call your Attorney General's office and find out who and where to refer criminal dentists, please do the public a favor and get the hell out of the office, go home, find a nice rocking chair and stop stealing taxpayer dollars going to work everyday and drawing a paycheck, you are useless!!

    It's your damn job to know where to refer the criminals! If the AG's office is calling you for information you know you can't handle the job, so do they.


    You have to ask questions, run down leads, check thing out, etc..to investigate! You also must have a working brain! You are in way over your head, get out now!

    If you are too big of an idiot to do something as simple as make a phone call, how do you find your way to your office everyday? No, the missing pet division at the humane society can't use you either.

    To the idiot Governor who appointed you, if keeping criminal dentists on the street was your goal, job well done!! Maybe a PET scan to ensure a working brain should be done before appointments to the board. Clearly, breathing is not a sign of intelligence.