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Police investigate Medicaid 'recruitment' claims
Updated 1:52 p.m., Friday, August 17, 2012
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.
