New York, NY – Five city dentists should be investigated for bilking the Medicaid system, a disturbing audit to be released finds, their unusually high claims and reimbursements.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
"These dentists took advantage of the weaknesses in the system and must be held accountable for their actions," said state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Among the findings was a dentist who claimed to have performed 270 fillings in a single day, a pace that would have required him to undertake more than five such procedures every 30 minutes for 24 hours.
The doctor boasted to auditors that the procedure only takes him 30 seconds.
All told, four of the dentists on 37 occasions claimed to have performed 25 or more filling procedures on one recipient during a single visit, according to the audit. [nypost]
oh please. stop defending the fraudsters just because you are in the same profession. not everyone is as honest as you.
any way to find out who the 5 dentists are?
I’m an MD. I agree with all the possibilities above (except #2 –isn’t it supposed to be billed under the practitioner’s name?). There are cheaters, but there are also people who work hard and see a lot of patients, and when the govt is looking for ways to cut costs or make headlines, they’ll hang people out to dry. Since the pubilc doesn’t know all the ins and outs of healthcare practice, the govt can always spin it so it sounds outlandish.
I am a DDS. I previously worked in an office that did a lot of Medicaid. What might have happened in the above story;
1, Perhaps he cheated.
2, perhaps he was billing for the work done by employees. The employees, often called independent contractors could be licensed Dentists. The billing is done on the owners name so he gets paid and then pays them their share.
3, perhaps he billed 270 surfaces, a filling can have 1, 2, 3 or more surfaces and there is a payment schedule for this.
4, perhaps, for some stupid reason he dated the billing for the one day a week he processed the billing, maybe this was 3 or 4 days work.
5, Maybe he chose to rebill for every filling he saw in the mouth, thinking they can’t prove if he redid it.