Nine dentists have been disciplined in connection with a Medicaid fraud case alleging they performed or billed for unnecessary dental work on poor children in North Carolina.
Patients as young as 4 years old had multiple teeth pulled and root canals performed during single appointments at Medicaid Dental Center clinics in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Asheville and Raleigh, according to state documents. When you just hear the word, “dentist“, you’d like to think that you’re in the safest hands possible when it comes to improving your oral hygiene. But in this case, that was the complete opposite. With this being said, there are professionals out there that you can trust and know that you’ll get the results you are after. Doing something as simple as researching dentists and clinics can make all the difference. To find out more if you are interested in finding a good dentist, you might want to check out somewhere similar to Dentist North York or somewhere more local to you.
At least two children received 16 pulpotomies, also known as “baby root canals,” and 16 steel crowns during the same visit.
“It was a very traumatic experience for the children and their parents,” said attorney Darren Dawson of Greenville, N.C., who represents some of the families involved.
“These were children who were 4, 5 and 6 who were told by their moms and dads that they were going to visit with trusted professionals. Suddenly, they’re in there for three hours and coming out with a mouth full of steel.”
In a settlement announced Wednesday, Medicaid Dental Center, a privately owned chain of N.C. dental clinics, agreed to pay $10 million to the government to resolve allegations that it performed and billed for unnecessary dental work on kids.
Clinic owners and dentists Letitia Ballance of the Charlotte area and Michael DeRose of Pueblo, Colo., are also serving three years’ probation, starting in 2005, by the N.C. Board of Dental Examiners.
The seven other dentists who worked for the clinics received written reprimands in 2005 that will remain permanently in their N.C. files and with the National Practitioner Data Bank.
“It’s something that will follow them in any state where they try to practice,” said Bobby White, executive director of the dental board.
White said the seven dentists received lighter discipline than the clinic owners because they were inexperienced and essentially following orders. Ballance and DeRose “were the bosses, making decisions and sending it down the line — `You will do things this way,’ ” White said. “The board saw that as a mitigating factor.”
The seven include three from Charlotte — Drs. John Lyons, Jeffrey Zieziula and Erron Brady. Others are Drs. Lori Petree and Christopher Ballinger of Winston-Salem, Dr. Heather Berkheimer of Southern Pines and Dr. Michelle Wilkerson of Raleigh, according to the dental board.
None of the seven could be reached for comment Thursday. Several continue to work for Medicaid Dental Center, in the Charlotte office, now called Smile Starters, and elsewhere. Ballinger and Brady now work in private practice.
According to the board’s reprimands, Lyons and Ballinger saw patients initially and developed diagnosis and treatment plans. The remaining five dentists performed the treatment. The board accused all seven of doing their work “without adequate diagnostic documentation.”
The dental work was done between 2001 and 2003 and involved the children’s baby teeth.
Since 2005, the dental board has made unannounced inspections of Medicaid Dental Center, and found the clinics substantially in compliance with its standards.
Spokeswomen for the U.S. attorney in Charlotte and the N.C. attorney general on Thursday would not disclose how many children they allege received unnecessary dental work, how many dentists were involved, or why the government settled for $10 million instead of bringing criminal charges.
