We recently received a copy of a presentation to the House Appropriations Committee done by Cecile Young, the Executive Commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services. The presentation outlines the current scope of HHS and contains more than a few … Read More
UPDATE: Two days before we originally published this article on December 18, then entitled “Dentists Not Included as First Tier Healthcare Workers to Receive COVID-19 Vaccines,” the American Dental Association sent a letter to the CDC asking the agency to … Read More
Texas HHS-OIG has just published its report for 2020 on Medicaid fraud uncovered and reported by MCOs in Texas. The report shows that DentaQuest and MCNA found only $234,098 and $127,264 in Medicaid fraud, respectively for 2020. According to the … Read More
Bill filing has started for the upcoming legislative session at the Texas Capitol. One of the early filings is HB 648, a bill introduced by House Rep. Richard Peña Raymond of Laredo to modify the mandate of the HHSC Office … Read More
TDMR recently reported about an open record request filed with the Office of the Attorney General to find out how many dentists were indicted for Medicaid fraud by the OAG’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), the section of the OAG … Read More
Online research has found that lawyers for Joshua Lafountain held a high-powered fundraiser in August of 2016 for the current trial judge in the case, Judge Maricela Moore of Dallas District Court 162. The event held at the offices of … Read More
More details have emerged about Joshua Lafountain, the relator in a Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act qui tam lawsuit filed against 71 dental organizations and dentists in 2016. The case is now before a judge in Dallas County District Court. … Read More
TDMR recently received information from an open records request to the Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Office of the Attorney General. The request asked for a list of investigations conducted by MFCU on dentists between 2011 and 2016 … Read More
Senior officials in the Texas Attorney General’s Office have asked federal law enforcement to “investigate allegations of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential crimes” by their boss, the Austin-American Statesman and KVUE-TV first reported Saturday. By Emma … Read More
A few weeks ago, we published our analysis of the latest Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General quarterly report and were struck by the fact that despite the large number of Medicaid health professions represented, dentists received a … Read More
Remember back in 2012 when the media and the state were outraged by dentists giving out gift cards or other small inducements to have Medicaid children get under care? In case you don’t, here are links to some media articles … Read More
TDMR took the opportunity to send a few questions to the new president of the Association of Dental Service Organizations (ADSO) Emmet Scott about the results of our latest DMO survey. We received back the following thoughtful responses and hope … Read More
We are pleased to make public the results of our Texas Medicaid Dental Maintenance Organization Annual Survey 2020. This year 90 dentists took the opportunity to give us their views on the performance of MCNA and DentaQuest. Last year we … Read More
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office yesterday sent out a press release announcing a final judgment in the civil Medicaid fraud case against Dr. Richard Malouf. Here is the text of the release: AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced … Read More
Is it us or does Medicaid dentistry seem to get more attention in these reports than other specialties? Are we being sensitive? We couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that again complaints against Medicaid dentists make up only … Read More
Texas HHS-OIG published on their website June 24 an audit they completed on DentaQuest back on January 9. The audit found that DentaQuest had $1.53 million in “unallowable, unsupported, and overstated expenses on its Administrative Expenses FSR [Financial Statistical Report]” … Read More
Cecile Young has been named the new head of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as the agency fights an ever-growing number of coronavirus cases in the state. Young, who has more than three decades of experience working in … Read More
At the end of April, a three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas ordered a malpractice lawsuit against the firm of Sommerman McCaffity Quesada & Geisler and Al Ellis, of counsel at the firm, to continue. The case … Read More
The Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO) is pleased to announce Emmet Scott, Community Dental Partners/National Dental Partners CEO, has been elected as the new president of the ADSO. Mr. Scott will succeed Michael Bileca of Dental Care Alliance, who … Read More
Just received this from Texas HHS. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will begin distributing $10 billion in a second round of high impact COVID-19 area funding to hospitals starting next week. Additionally, HHS announced that … Read More
