OCEAN DENTAL is throwing their dentists to the wolves.

To ALL Dentists!
So you want to work for a corporate dental chain? Better think twice. Dr. Robin Lockwood is now facing 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine all for trying to meet those production quotas. What are you doing to meet yours?

June 21, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY—Robin R Lockwood, 44, a dentist from Oklahoma City, has been charged with committing health care fraud, announced Sanford C Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Lockwood is a dentist licensed to practice in the state of Oklahoma and was employed under contract by Ocean Dental at offices located at 1610 Southwest 74th Avenue, Oklahoma City. Ocean Dental’s dentists provided dental care to Medicaid-eligible children. The Medicaid Program is a cooperative program that provides federal and state funds to pay for health care benefits for individuals with insufficient incomes to meet the costs of necessary medical expenses. In Oklahoma, Medicaid is administered as “SoonerCare” by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA), a state governmental agency.

 

Ocean Dental Dentist charged with Medicaid Fraud

Let this be a HUGE warning to all you dental mill dentists out there, trying to meet those production goals for your bonus – you are the low hanging fruit – you will be the one charged with fraud.

 

An Oklahoma City dentist has been charged in a complaint of committing health care fraud

Oklahoma City dentist Robin Lockwood, 44, has been charged in a complaint of committing health care fraud at Ocean Dental.

FROM STAFF REPORTS | Published: June 21, 2012

An Oklahoma City dentist has been charged with committing health care fraud, authorities announced Wednesday.

Robin Lockwood, 44, is accused of defrauding Medicaid by submitting claims for dental services she didn't provide, according to a news release issued by U.S. Attorney Sandford Coats.

The news release states the fraud occurred from July 2007 through December 2010 while Lockwood was employed by Ocean Dental, 1610 SW 74. The clinic provides dental care to Medicaid-eligible children and submits claims for reimbursement to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. The dentists are reimbursed based on the treatment notes they write for each patient.

Lockwood was charged on a complaint that she submitted notes about treatments she hadn't done. Relying on Lockwood's treatment notes, Ocean Dental submitted claims for reimbursement to Medicaid and paid her a percentage of those reimbursements.

If convicted, Lockwood faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Read more: http://newsok.com/an-oklahoma-city-dentist-has-been-charged-in-a-complaint-of-committing-health-care-fraud/article/3686174#ixzz1yRAMVaZr

Personally, I wish it had been that nasty woman, Megann Scott, DDS.

Dentist, Dr. Marieve Rodriguez, sentenced to 9 months in jail for Medicaid fraud and loss of license

A prominent Wilmington dentist was sentenced to nine months in prison Wednesday for a years-long fraud that bilked the state’s Medicaid program of more than $71,900.

Marieve Rodriguez, who had negotiated a plea agreement that only called for home confinement, broke down after Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins Jr. announced the sentence, leaning on one of her attorneys for support. Parkins said he was sending a message that such sustained, methodical fraud will be severely punished.

Rodriguez, who operates Gentle Care Family Dentistry on Gilpin Avenue, Wilmington, will lose her medical license for a year. Her sentence also includes a $100,000 fine, repaying prosecution costs of $49,000, paying $71,900 restitution, and 600 hours of community service.

Delaware Online

Byron Harris update on dental Medicaid fraud in Texas

June 20, 2012

Read Byron’s complete report here at WFAA

Two days after a Canadian Private Equity firm buys Orpharma, registered users get email on how to increase sales to fix your gum “pockets”

Valeant buys Orapharma for $312 million. 

I have been told there is no real scientific evidence to any of this Arestin stuff. And if I remember right the American Heart Association came out earlier this year and announced there was no real evidence associated with heart disease as you may be told.

I don’t have a clue either way. What I know is a Private Equity firm out of Canada is suggesting high pressure sales tactics the public should be made aware of.Just like the public needs to be aware of the drug companies and their sales techniques - which are many times very dangerous – the public needs to know this.

Here is just one of Arestin's sales training videos.

Ocean Dental–bomb shelter offices more like sweat shops

From RipOff Report:

Ocean Dental advertises for Medicaid and has commercials that attract children with Medicaid.  They have a call center that takes their calls.  They train these young representatives to not let the caller know they are on the phone with a call center.  Ocean Dental wants the patient or parent to be tricked into thinking they are talking to a nurse in the clinic.  In all actuality you are speaking to someone who knows nothing about your child, nothing about Medicaid, and nothing concerning dental terminology or illnesses caused by tooth decay.  The purpose of the call center is just to real you in onto their schedule, so that they can give you a 7 minute cleaning and take your Medicaid.  Someone from the Kentucky, Louisianna, or Ohio area can call and will get the call center in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  The representatives in this call center, which is located in a bomb shelter and set up under a bank, has never seen the clinics and do not know what they look like.  They have only heard the voices of the people that work the front desk.  How sketchy for a dental practice to take advantage of Medicaid patients because they know that these people are low income and welfare based.  Something should be done about the quality of that working environment.  They seldom have water and have to walk up a large set of steep steps to get to the bathroom which is shared amongst the Ocean Dental reps and the bank workers.  Eight hours of work underground with no breaks.  This place is worse than a Chinese sweat shop.  The best advice from a worker who currently works there is if you care about your child’s dental needs DO NOT take them to Ocean Dental.

Kool Smiles Pre-Frontline Propaganda LMAO

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/20/4576945/new-britain-kool-smiles-selected.html

New Britain Kool Smiles Selected as "Best New Dentist" in the Area According to 2012 New Britain Herald Reader's Poll

CBS and Washington Post Scrub Website of NC Dental Society Article

Thought you read something about the fight going on in North Carolina and Private Equity backed dental corporations - like those owned by Michael and Susan Dell - on the Washington Post website? What about the CBS News website?

Well they are now gone. Scrubbed clean, it appears. At least I can’t find them. The WP article was there on Monday (June 18), and had been since June 6. Today is Wednesday June 20 and it has vanished!

 

CBS News – June 6, 2012 – NC dentists at odds over management company rules  GONE!

Here is the cached version, so you know you weren’t imagining things.

Washington Post June 6, 2012 - Dentist trade group, management companies fight at NC Legislature over tighter rules  GONE!

Here is how the WP article started out:

The North Carolina Dental Society is backing a bill to regulate dental service organizations (DSOs) more closely because it says some of these groups are crossing the line and essentially controlling dental practices. State law allows only dentists to own and operate practices and make medical decisions for patients.

Dentists affiliated with these dental service organizations and their patients visited the Legislative Building to oppose a Senate bill containing new rules. They say other dentists are trying to block them from offering services at a fraction of what those in traditional practices now charge. The organizations help control costs by handling things like payroll, human resources and purchasing, backers say.

Proponents of the bill argue DSOs are often out-of-state, investor-owned corporations which come in and exert control in dental practices and get in between the doctor-patient relationship.  They argue that some organizations are imposing production quotas and encouraging dentists to persuade patients that they need certain treatments.

Opponents of the bill argue DSOs offer affordable dental care and alleviate the administrative burden of dentists which allows them to spend more time on patients.  They argue limiting these organizations will limit access to affordable healthcare and are just an effort by traditional dental practitioners to limit the spread of DSOs in North Carolina.

See the pic above, it was there!

So who is scrubbing the Internet?

OIG requesting public comment on changes in protocol for “self reporting” of fraud

Revising OIG’s Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol Solicitation for Information and Recommendations

AGENCY: Office of Inspector General (OIG), HHS.
ACTION: Notice and Opportunity for Comment.
SUMMARY: This Federal Register notice informs the public that OIG:

(1) Intends to update the Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol (63 FR 58399, October 30, 1998) and

(2) solicits input from the public for OIG to consider in updating the Protocol. DATES: To ensure consideration, public comments must be delivered to the address provided below by no later than 5 p.m. on August 17, 2012.

 

Background: In 1998, OIG published the Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol (the Protocol) to establish a process for health care providers to disclose potential fraud involving the Federal health care programs. The Protocol provides guidance on how to investigate this conduct, quantify damages, and report the conduct to OIG to resolve the provider’s liability exposure under OIG’s civil money penalty (CMP) authorities.

Over the past 14 years, we have resolved over 800 disclosures, resulting in recovering over $280 million to the Federal health care programs. Through our experience in resolving Protocol matters, we identified areas where additional guidance would be beneficial to the provider community and would improve the efficient resolution of Protocol matters. Specifically, we issued three Open Letters to Health Care Providers to address some of these issues.

First, in 2006 we announced an initiative to encourage disclosure of conduct creating liability under OIG’s antikickback and physician self-referral law CMP authorities.

Limiting Private Equity Dentistry: A Report by Michael Davis, DDS

The full report with all referenced materials and index can be download here.  A handy tool for fighting these crimes against humanity.

Support for Limiting Private Equity Dentistry- made to New Mexico Board of Dental Health Care

Report submitted in response to request of
Dr. Robert Gherardi, New Mexico Board of Dental Health Care-
June 13, 2012

By: Michael Davis, DDS
Background

It is important to get up to speed, with specific nomenclature of Interstate Corporate Dentistry, and specific factors of related Case Law.

A Dental Management Service Organization (DMSO) controls the operations of their subordinate dental clinics. They pay staff salaries, including doctors’ salaries. They control the supplies available to each dental clinic. They (not the individual dentist) select the laboratory to be employed for lab services (dentures, crowns, bridges, etc.). They set production quotas and bonuses for individual doctors & individual clinics. They monitor and evaluate each clinical service provided, by each Provider they employ. They control the bank accounts of each individual dental clinic, and sweep those bank accounts on a very regular basis. They pay rent on real estate, of the clinic facilities. They select & maintain dental equipment for each subordinate clinic. They are responsible for the Licensure & Accreditation of each employee. They generally supply the Malpractice Insurance for their Employee Dentists, but often will not purchase “Tail Coverage”.

On paper, the DMSO owns very few hard assets, but actually pulls the strings, of the Practice of Dentistry. Their most valuable assets are their contractual obligations, which have been demonstrated by the Fifth Circuit in re: OCA, Inc. December 12 2008 (07-30430), to represent the “Unlicensed and Unlawful Practice of Dentistry”. Increasingly, we are today seeing more DMSOs, which are offshore registered corporations, versus Delaware incorporation.