Re: [PRESSLIST] Attorney General Charges Central Valley Dentist and 20 Others in $4.5 Million Medi-cal Fraud Scheme

From: Nancy (Nancy3_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/25/04 

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 16:43:31 GMT

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 17:38:11 +0100, Happy Oyster
<happy.oyster@ariplex.com> wrote:

>"As part of the conspiracy to defraud the Medi-Cal system, the
>dentists committed acts injurious to public health, placing the
>patients at risk of pain, infection, loss of teeth and great bodily
>injury, including: reusing dental instruments without sterilizing them,
>developing treatment plans that called for unnecessary dental surgeries
>such as root canals and fillings.."

>"The kickbacks provided an
>incentive to perform unnecessary dental procedures of poor quality,
>including unnecessary filings and even unnecessary root canal
>procedures. It was not uncommon for a patient to walk out of Hatch
>Dental with 20 or more unnecessary fillings."

I want their heads on sticks.
But before that they will have 20 fillings, and 2 root canals
each *without adequate anaesthesia*.
And we are NOT going to sterilize the instruments!
For ringleader Doctor Teo and his wife, we are thinking
about bringing back public hangings.

><quote>
>Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 10:50:48 -0700
>Sender: The DOJ press release mailing list
><PRESSLIST@JUSTICE.DOJ.CA.GOV>
>From: NEWSALERTS NEWSALERTS <NEWSALERTS@DOJ.CA.GOV>
>
>[PRESSLIST] Attorney General Charges Central Valley Dentist and 20
>Others in $4.5 Million Medi-cal Fraud Scheme
>
>ATTORNEY GENERAL CHARGES CENTRAL VALLEY DENTIST AND 20 OTHERS IN $4.5
>MILLION MEDI-CAL FRAUD SCHEME
>
>Dentists Bilked System; Performed Unnecessary Dental Work on
>Unsuspecting Patients
>
>(SACRAMENTO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today filed criminal
>complaints against 20 dentists throughout the state, charging them
>with defrauding the state Medi-Cal System of $4.5 million, health
>benefits and workers’ compensation fraud, conspiracy, grand theft,
>child abuse, elder abuse, assault and intentional infliction of great
>bodily injury.
>
>“These dentists put at risk the health and well-being of hundreds of
>children and adults by performing slipshod dental services that were
>unnecessary, ignoring health problems that needed tending, and even
>skimping on appropriate amounts of anesthesia before submitting
>patients to painful procedures,” Lockyer said. “This office will
>continue to aggressively prosecute those who rip off the Medi-Cal
>system that more than 6 million poor and elderly Californians depend
>on for vital health care.”
>
>Filed in Stanislaus County Superior Court, the complaint charges
>Modesto dentist Kyon Maung Teo, who owns Hatch Dental clinics in
>Ceres, Stockton and Modesto, with being the mastermind of a scam
>involving dentists from throughout the state. The complaint alleges
>Teo, 42, placed advertisements on the back of missing-children flyers
>and in PennySaver and DollarSaver publications. The advertisements
>offered gifts or rebates to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and “new patients”
>who sought services at Hatch Dental.
>The investigation by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud
>and Elder Abuse (BMFEA), assisted by the California Department of
>Health Services (DHS) showed Teo recruited 19 other dentists, who
>were paid about 25 percent of the insurance proceeds received by Hatch
>Dental for the work they performed. The kickbacks provided an
>incentive to perform unnecessary dental procedures of poor quality,
>including unnecessary filings and even unnecessary root canal
>procedures. It was not uncommon for a patient to walk out of Hatch
>Dental with 20 or more unnecessary fillings. To help increase
>billings, dental assistants also were instructed to perform procedures
>such as cementing crowns, which lawfully can only be performed by
>licensed dentists.
>
>Co-defendant Kin Thor Pang, Teo’s wife, was the office manager for all
>three Hatch Dental clinics. The complaint alleges Pang, 33, trained
>office staff to complete false dental claims, including changing dates
>of service or billing Medi-Cal and private insurance companies for
>"emergency" office visits if the patients were ineligible for routine
>coverage at the time of service.
>
>The Hatch clinic staffs also were trained to fabricate periodontal
>charts and prepare Treatment Authorization Requests (TARs) to obtain
>Medi-Cal reimbursement for services based on the fabricated charts.
>Claims also were submitted for visits that never occurred and for
>non-existent procedures purportedly performed during the fabricated
>office visits. Insurance billing clerks were docked a dollar from
>their paycheck for each “mistake” they made.
>
>As part of the conspiracy to defraud the Medi-Cal system, the dentists
>committed acts injurious to public health, placing the patients at
>risk of pain, infection, loss of teeth and great bodily injury,
>including: reusing dental instruments without sterilizing them,
>developing treatment plans that called for unnecessary dental
>surgeries such as root canals and fillings, performing dental
>surgeries without considering the patient’s medical history, providing
>numerous shallow fillings in lieu of comprehensive treatment to
>patients in need of such treatment, issuing prescriptions for Schedule
>III narcotics without documenting the source and type of pain,
>forcibly restraining children during dental operations, performing
>extensive dental treatment on minors without fully disclosing the
>extent of the treatment to the minor’s parent or guardian and
>performing dental surgeries without adequate anesthesia.
>
>As the result of a separate investigation conducted by the California
>Department of Insurance, Teo and Pang also are charged with committing
>Workers’ Compensation premium fraud by grossly understating the
>salaries of Hatch employees. The under-reporting resulted in a loss of
>$948.19 to Superior National Insurance Company, and $9,154 to Everest
>National Insurance Company.
>
>Other dentists named as defendants in the complaint are:
> • Steve Sangmoon Ahn, 41, of Fullerton
> • Hoon Young Chang, 34, of Anaheim Hills
> • Wen Hsiang Chou, 46, of Alhambra
> • Anthony Halili Galvan, 42, of Dublin
> • Eduardo Sabater Gerodias, 36, of Modesto
> • Shahryar Baradaran Hashemi, 37, of Reseda
> • Keith Yoshikuzu Komaki, 58, of Anaheim
> • Ricky Hung-Tak Lam, 35, of Antioch
> • Rahim Mesbah, 49, of Modesto
> • Duc Sy Nguyen, 33, of Milpitas
> • Sang-Hyuk “Sean” Park, 35, of Merced
> • Luis Alexandrino Pinto, 42, of Irvine
> • Rodolfo Poscablo Ravanera, 57, of Oakland
> • Behnam Rostami, 48, of Stockton
> • Williams Defreitas Saraiva, 60, of Irvine
> • Seyed Mohamed Tarifard, 58, of Stockton
> • Tri Duy Vu, 32, of Sunnyvale
> • Shiyu Wang,44 of Alameda
> • Faruk Cenap Yetek, 43, of Pleasant Hill
>
>Patients who believe they have been victimized by the Hatch Dental
>clinic dentists are urged to contact the Attorney General’s Medi-Cal
>Fraud Hotline number at 1-800-722-0432.
>
>View this press release on the Attorney General's web site at
>http://caag.state.ca.us/newsalerts/2004/04-110.htm

># # #
></quote>
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Aribert Deckers
>--
>Ich klage an:
> Schwerer Pfusch bei Knie-Behandlungen
>
> http://www.ariplex.com/hws/hws_knie.htm

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