The following Today show video is from the Tuesday, December 11, 2012 episode. It is about allegations that have been made against the Small Smiles chain of dental clinics. This chain has clinics in 21 states.
Small Smiles caters to low-income children. The company has been accused of performing unnecessary dental procedures on the children in order to collect more Medicaid payments. If proven, Small Smiles could be charged criminally plus be sued and have to pay back fraudulently obtained Medicaid payments. And if any individual knowingly defrauded the federal government, that employee could face criminal charges, as well. Usually, though, these kinds of people are usually just smart enough to have some sketchy medical reason to create reasonable doubt even though suspicion exists. But of course, I am not stating an opinion on Small Smiles or any of its employees because we don’t have enough facts to make an informed opinion.
Autumn Archuleta provides one example of these allegations. She says her son underwent several painful procedures, including a couple of baby root canals. There is too much of an appeal to emotion in this part of the story. But Myers finally reveals that Autumn did have another dentist look at the records. And that dentist said that some of the work was unnecessary.
Small Smiles has already settled before with the Justice Department over allegations of Medicaid fraud. Teh company paid $24 million. But this report says it still may be going on.
Senator Charles Grassley says that Small Smiles should be banned from Medicaid.
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