I wrote a diary in March about how WFAA a local ABC affiliate TV station had found out Dentists in Texas were ripping off Medicaid by paying associates to stake out areas where mothers with young children who might be on Medicaid were. The associates would offer the mothers gift cards and other enticements to take their children to a specific dental chain. The dental chains would then do procedures not really necessary to get paid for Medicaid work.
On May 29th Laura Clawson had an excellent diary about how it was not just in Texas but national.
Private equity invests in dentists to pull poor kids' teeth for Medicaid dollars
You can go there now and check it out and then come back here, it is a real eye opener.
One chain soon filed for bankruptcy after WFAA-TV exposed them. Did that stop the rip off. NO!!!
Investigative reporter BYRON HARRIS of WFAA did a follow up piece showing how the companies simply adapted new tactics.
The story is here if you want to check it out and I highly recommend it
Medicaid recruiters scramble for Texas dental patients
While I see the local Texas story, from the information I read on the diary by Laura this is done nationally in many if not all states. I would think congress might want to look into it because the Medicaid thieves seem to have more resources than a state can keep up with. Even a state like Texas. Well we may have somewhat of an excuse, our governor is Rick Perry the presidential candidate who kept forgetting his lines in debates. He spent about six months running to be the Republican presidential candidate and was only in Texas a few hours during that time so maybe they did this all when he was busy with important national stuff like.. Ahh.. Well.. Errr...
Duh, sorry I had a Perry moment, as we say in Texas. I used to say I had a senior moment but now in Texas that has been replaced with Perry moments.
Now given that the company(s) involved probably pay big bucks to repubs and maybe some Dems too (Less likely as Democrats are not as inclined to look the other way since this hurts important programs that they have put in place to help the poor.)
According to WFAA
At the Galaxy Dental office on Garland Road in Dallas, News 8 observed a discrete operation on several mornings. A group of women dressed as community service workers went into the Galaxy office, then emerged to fan out into neighborhoods to talk to Medicaid moms.
Galaxy is part of a chain of dozens of dental clinics in Texas.
The women, it turns out, are part of an army of 400 people called Texas Community Outreach Associates who are paid salaries to funnel patients to Galaxy and its affiliates.
One-to-one solicitation of patients is illegal, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. "Federal law prohibits you from soliciting a patient," said HHS spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman. "You can't offer them special incentives. You can't do a direct solicitation.”
The website of Texas Community Outreach Associates looks like a social service agency at first glance. The workers, it says, belong to "chapters." They wear maroon shirts that sport a logo of interlocked hands on the back.
But state corporation records show TCOA is a private business with the same address as Dental Professionals of Texas, DPTX. DPTX is the parent company of Galaxy Dental and 22 other dental brands in the state.
DPTX clinics take in an estimated $100 million a year, much of it from Medicaid.
After a News 8 investigation in March, DPTX reorganized its recruiting, and formed Texas Community Outreach Associates. Kevin Byington heads up the new company. He portrays himself as a reformed recruiter.
Byington said he used to work for a dental chain that paid recruiters $40 for each Medicaid patient, $20 for each privately insured patient, and $10 for each cash patient.
So Texas changed the rules after the WFAA-TV story in March and we heard how on Dental chain soon filed for bankruptcy. It looks like to me WFAA-TV is doing the investigating and Texas rule makers respond due to public pressure after millions of dollars have gone to these rip off artists that call themselves businesses.
WFAA further tells us...
A recruiter who worked for the company until the end of April told News 8, the business of "marketing" for the dental chain had not changed.
"They wanted 100 patients every month from each marketer," the former recruiter said, adding that she used giveaways such as manicures, pedicures, and toys to lure mothers and their children into the office.
Dental offices were often packed with patients, she said, and marketers would buy them breakfast and lunch to keep them from leaving the office while they were waiting to see the dentist.
Dentists would often see seven patients an hour, she said.
There is a lot more information at the WFAA website that I gave a link to above and I recommend reading it since they may be operating in your state too.
I wonder why there hasn't been a national investigation? Maybe because the repubs have got congress so in gridlock this isn't important enough for them. AND maybe, just maybe these companies have been paying huge sums to help get their friends in congress reelected.
It’s time for someone to tell Medicaid investigators they need to do a better job. BUT we know the Republicans will surely not want fund that investigative body well enough so it catches their naughty friends and their moneybags. Of course with all the work WFAA has done and filmed and documented maybe the Medicaid investigator will only have to fly to Dallas and look over the files at WFAA-TV