The Texas Senate confirmed Charles Smith’s appointment on April 19 as the Health Human Services executive commissioner for a two-year term at the head of the state’s largest agency. Smith, a Childress native, oversees an agency of 53,000 employees that … Read More
Last week, the Texas Association of Health Plans (TAHP) announced that it was working with the Texas Medical Association (TMA) to speed up credentialing for Medicaid providers by selecting Aperture, LLC, as the statewide Credentialing Verification Organization (CVO). Here is … Read More
The following is an interview done with Dr. Juan D. Villarreal, author of “Truth Decay: How Government Corruption Caused a Political Scandal Victimizing Texas Dentists and How It Could Happen to You!,” published by TDMR. The book has now been available … Read More
Texas HHS placed on their website last week two new policies relating to Medicaid dentistry on which they would like stakeholder comments. Dental anesthesia The first is a draft policy relates to dental anesthesia which: Requires prior authorization for general anesthesia in conjunction … Read More
Below are the results of our TDMR Medicaid Dental Maintenance Organization Followup Survey. 84 dentists responded to the survey which is not quite comparable to the 105 who took the first survey back in December 2016. Cautions on the results … Read More
TDMR recently had the opportunity to interview the current president of the Texas Dental Association, Dr. Rita M. Cammarata. Dr. Cammaratta, despite her extremely busy schedule, graciously consented to answer several questions that we posed to her via email. Her … Read More
Yesterday, the Sunset Advisory Commission introduced both a House and Senate bill to adopt their proposed changes to legislation affecting the State Board of Dental Examiners. HB 2990 was introduced as authored by Sunset member state Rep. Cindy Burkett while … Read More
Another bill affecting Medicaid providers of all stripes was introduced yesterday by state Rep. Sergio Muñoz Jr. from District 35 in the Rio Grande Valley. Rep Muñoz, Jr. is a second term representative who was a member of the Government … Read More
HB 2558, am act relating to capitation payments under a contract with a health maintenance organization for the provision of dental care services, has been introduced into this legislative session this week by State Rep. Dr. Tom Oliverson out of … Read More
Several legal media outlets reported yesterday that former Texas Medicaid claims administrator Xerox has brought an appeal before the Texas Supreme Court because the company says the state is “wrongfully blocking the company from designating the dentists who treated patients in the alleged … Read More
Jeff Leston, the founder of Castlestone LLC, has provided TDMR with his take on how to improve government healthcare plans such as Texas Medicaid to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Castlestone is a company created to use the infrastructure of … Read More
UPDATE, March 2: Survey is now closed. Last fall through to this January, TDMR received a deluge of unsolicited complaints regarding problems with Medicaid dental managed care organizations. Lots of complaints and education actions taken We have published no less … Read More
For the last several years, TDMR has provided contact information on its website for reporting Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse to both state and federal healthcare authorities. From the links provided on practically every page of our website, anyone could go … Read More
TDMR received a notice yesterday from the Health and Human Services Inspector General office that Inspector General Stuart Bowen will be hosting, along with Sen. Chuy Hinojosa, a “Rio Grande Valley Medicaid Integrity Symposium.” The event is to take place … Read More
House Bill 1420 was introduced into the legislation session yesterday by House Representative Mando Martinez. The bill is captioned as “Relating to the imposition of a late payment penalty against Medicaid managed care organizations that fail to timely pay certain … Read More
The following is a statement received from MB2 Dental Solutions, the Dallas-area dental service organization, that recently settled with federal and state authorities for a whopping $8.45 million over allegations of Medicaid fraud. A company representative told us that they … Read More
In August of last year, the Sunset Advisory Commission requested a review by a blue ribbon panel of dental experts into dental anesthesia-related deaths in Texas as part of its review process of the State Board of Dental Examiners. On … Read More
TDMR has learned from a staffer in the office of Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa that they have been informed by Health and Human Services that managed care organizations, including MCNA, do not have any right under any Texas or federal … Read More
Did you know that HHS, formerly HHSC, has a Managed Care Inquiries and Complaints mailbox? It does. It also has a person to field those inquiries and complaints. That person is Dr. Marguerite Laccabue, MPH, DDS, Dental Director of the Office of … Read More
At the same stakeholders meeting last February that representatives from MCNA and Dentaquest provided briefings, the then-dental director for the Health and Human Services Inspector General, Dr. Linda Altenhoff, presented on rules and regulations regarding solicitation by dental providers. Altenhoff … Read More
