Ron White, Dental Consultant
- From: "Joel M. Eichen" <joeleichen@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 05:18:52 -0400
See image at DentalCom or here at SMD.
http://www.dentalcom.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1837
(Includes some background discussion and photos)
Joel
Posted on Sun, Apr. 24, 2005
Tom Ferrick Jr. | White had teeth in dental care, too
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
Inquirer Columnist
[IMG]http://tinypic.com/4lm4b4[/IMG]
Posted on Sun, Apr. 24, 2005
Tom Ferrick Jr. | White had teeth in dental care, too
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
Inquirer Columnist
The late Ron White collected a lot of tags during his brief but eventful
life: Friend of John Street's. Uber-lawyer. Bond counsel. Bon vivant.
Political wheeler-dealer. Target of a federal probe. Beloved mentor to City
Treasurer Corey Kemp.
Now we can add a new title to that list: dental consultant.
Not dental consultant in a little way, as in: "Gee, Ron, do you think I
should get a new crown on this molar?"
Dental consultant in a big way.
For 26 months, beginning in January 2002, White collected nearly $1.8
million in fees from a provider of dental care to Medicaid patients in the
Philadelphia area.
You couldn't see me while I was typing that paragraph, but I was whistling
"Phew!" - as in "Phew, that's a lot of money!"
White got the fees without ever lifting a drill. He served as a consultant
for Doral Dental Services of Pennsylvania Inc.
Doral is a subcontractor to Keystone Mercy Health Plan, which has a contract
with the state to provide health and dental services to poor people in the
city and environs.
Doral administered the dental part of the plan, handling about $30 million a
year in business involving 250,000 patients.
All the details contained herein, including White's fees, come from court
records in a lawsuit filed by a group of dentists, alleging that they were
underpaid by Doral.
Suit settled
The class-action suit, filed in June 2004, was recently settled, with Doral
agreeing to pay $5.25 million to the dentists and their lawyers.
A final hearing on the settlement is scheduled for mid-May before Common
Pleas Court Judge Mark Bernstein, who presided over the case and is
overseeing the settlement.
The suit centered on something called Global Budget Methodology, a pool of
money set aside by Doral to reimburse dentists who care for the poor.
Under Doral's system, the dentists would receive fees for services - far
below market rates - but additional compensation would come from this pool,
once administrative and other costs were deducted.
The problem was - or so the dentists alleged in their suit - the pool was
"fraudulently bilked" by Doral.
As the dentists' suit put it: "Rather than being available to compensate
dentists for dental services, these funds have [been] paid out in phony
'commissions' to a variety of people who did not earn them, including
politically prominent individuals with no significant health care
experience."
Lawyers for the dentists sought a passel of documents regarding the who,
what, when, where and why of the Doral payments.
$$$ for dentists
Those efforts ended with the settlement this spring, though it still needs a
final blessing by the judge.
Jonathan Auerbach, a lead attorney for the dentists, said that his clients
could get cash settlements close to "five figures" from Doral. He estimated
that there were about 350 dentists eligible for those payments.
I put a call in to Ronald Levine, attorney for Doral, but failed to reach
him for comment Friday. In the settlement document, Doral said the $5.25
million represents a "minimum recovery of between 30 percent and 50 percent
of these consulting payments." It added that Doral believes the consulting
payments were appropriate. It was unclear from the court documents what,
exactly, White did as a consultant for Doral.
A word here about Doral. The firm has been involved in imbroglios elsewhere
over its political connections.
On Wednesday, the State of Tennessee decided not to renew its $18 million
contract with Doral Dental for managing that state's Medicaid plan. The
reason: static over disclosures that Doral had hired a consulting firm in
2002 to help it get the contract that, in turn, paid $237,000 to State Sen.
John Ford.
Ford currently is under state and federal investigation in connection with
those fees. The case has prompted the Tennessee legislature to change its
ethics law to prohibit elected officials from receiving fees from firms that
do business with the state.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Contact columnist Tom Ferrick at 215-854-2714 or tferrick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/ferrick.
email this print this reprint or license this
The Inquirer | Daily News | Sports | Entertainment | Shop Local |
Classifieds
About Philly.com | About the Real Cities Network | Terms of Use & Privacy
Statement | About Knight Ridder | Copyright
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Off Topic Health Subject- Posted As A Public Service
- Next by Date: Re: Proflex Dentures
- Previous by thread: Re: Off Topic Health Subject- Posted As A Public Service
- Next by thread: Re: Did you brush your teeth with RAT POISON this morning?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
