150908 Doc 109 CDMO & CDET v Comfort Dental Response to Opp
They need 75 more signatures guys, let's make this happen. Texas is the worst state in the nation for dental fraud and lack of action by it's dental board. It's the state where criminal dentists thrive in administrative protection! Remember for every $1 of fraud in Texas, .50 is stolen from taxpayers of the other 49 states.
I know it’s hard but try to stop laughing and read this ridiculous press release.
(Benevis was formerly NCDR (Kool Smiles), owned by private equity firm FLL Partners.)
Study Finds Only 26.5% Of Texas Children Eligible For Medicaid Dental Coverage Frequently Visit Dentist.
PRNewswire (7/30) carries a release announcing that a new survey by the Benevis Foundation, conducted by Kennesaw State and Emory University researchers, finds that “only 26.5% of Texas parents with children eligible for Medicaid dental coverage consistently bring their children to the dentist as frequently as they should,” with parents citing financial hardships as the primary barrier to more frequent dental visits. Geoffrey Freeman, spokesperson for the Benevis Foundation, said, “This suggests that parents may not be aware of the complete coverage of their benefit, or that there may be secondary costs – such as transportation or unpaid time off work – that keeps these families from visiting the dentist as often as they would like.”
Aired WFAA July 20, 2015
These answers should be interesting don’t’ ya think? I can answer. Little to nothing to “prevent” and even less to “punish”.
Jul 02, 2015
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking key government agencies what they’re doing to prevent and punish Medicaid dental fraud, including billing for unnecessary treatments for children, in light of inspector general audits and related media reports documenting worrisome practices.
“Some dentists are clearly performing unwanted and unneeded medical procedures on children without the consent of parents and bilking Medicaid for the privilege,” Grassley wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel Levinson.
Grassley’s letters cited Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General audits of questionable billing practices for Medicaid pediatric dental services in four states: California, New York, Louisiana and Indiana. All of these audits identified questionable billing practices that suggest Medicaid dental providers are performing medically unnecessary procedures on children. Grassley wrote that this conclusion has been echoed by a variety of news sources that have reported on troubling practices performed by dentists treating children in Medicaid, including a Florida-based dentist who allegedly subjected hundreds of children to unneeded tooth extractions, improper dental fixtures, and other troublesome procedures.
Grassley asked Lynch for the number of criminal and civil fraud referrals from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General related to Medicaid dentistry chains in the past five years, with a listing of the referrals by state and how each criminal and civil case was resolved; details of the number of ongoing Department of Justice Medicaid dental chain fraud investigations by state; and a description of the Department of Justice’s plan to address the findings by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General that indicate health care fraud in the context of dental procedures provided to children in Medicaid.
Grassley asked Levinson for the steps the inspector general’s office will take, or has already taken, to increase the auditing of dentistry offices that are recipients of federal dollars; the number of criminal and civil fraud referrals from the inspector general’s office to the Department of Justice relating to Medicaid dentistry chain activity in the past five years; details of the Medicaid dentistry audits the office performed by state in the past five years, with a note on whether the audit resulted in criminal or civil referral to the Department of Justice; the number of ongoing Medicaid dental fraud investigations by state; and a description of the progress on following up on billing fraud and unnecessary procedures in Medicaid pediatric dental services.
In 2013, following a year-long investigation, Grassley and then-Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana issued a report and recommendations urging the administration to ban dental clinics from participating in the Medicaid program if the dental clinics circumvent state laws designed to ensure only licensed dentists own dental practices to prevent substandard care. In 2014, the inspector general moved to disqualify a firm from Medicaid.
Grassley’s latest letters are available here and
What apparently escaped the NY Attorney General is that the parent company is the actual owner of the dental practices and the "owner dentist” doesn’t own diddly-squat.
Hey NY AG! The "Dental Management Companies" hires individual dentists as salaried employees who then pretend to "own" the clinics! But you know that, right?
In the case of Small Smiles, the original "owner dentists" paid $10.00 per clinic or less. But when we caught on the price went up to a whopping $100. That's a pretty sweet,,, "owning" a business that generates millions of dollars a year, for $100. Sign me up!
June 2016 New York State Attorney General Settlement Order With Aspen Dental
We are all F’d!
June 3, 2015
Gryphon Investors has teamed up with dental industry veterans Steven C. Bilt and Bradley E. Schmidt to form OneSmile. No financial terms were disclosed. OneSmile will initially focus on buying existing dental practices in the western U.S.
PRESS RELEASE
June 3, 2015, San Francisco –Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced today that it has formed a partnership with Steven C. Bilt and Bradley E. Schmidt to establish OneSmile, LLC (“OneSmile”). The new company will initially focus on acquiring existing dental practices and groups in the western United States, as part of a strategy to build a comprehensive Dental Services Organization (“DSO”) platform.
Mr. Bilt, a seventeen-year veteran of the dental industry, is OneSmile’s CEO. He previously served as the president and CEO of Smile Brands, Inc., one of the largest providers of support services to general and multi-specialty dental groups in the United States. Brad Schmidt will be OneSmile’s CFO, a position he previously held at Smile Brands, Inc. Together with Gryphon’s financial backing, Mr. Bilt and Mr. Schmidt built that company from inception to over 250 locations with revenues of over $350 million before Gryphon sold a majority of its shares in 2005. The executives continued to lead the company for subsequent investors, eventually expanding it to more than 400 locations and over $500 million in revenues.
Mr. Bilt, who is a founding member and former director and president of the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO), said, “There is a compelling opportunity to build a leading DSO in the Western U.S., and I look forward to working with Gryphon again in this exciting new venture. Their experience helping to build Smile Brands’ predecessor starting in 1998, along with their financial and operational support, will benefit us as we establish a unique model bringing comprehensive general, pediatric and specialty dental care and healthy, happy smiles to millions of people.”