On its website, ABC News (1/20, Ruppel, Thomas) reported, "FORBA Holdings LLC, the parent company of the nationwide pediatric dental chain 'Small Smiles,' reached a $24 million settlement with the Department of Justice Wednesday for allegedly performing medically unnecessary or substandard procedures on children insured by Medicaid, to turn a profit."
ABC World News (1/20, story 8, 2:00, Thomas) reported that the government describes the scheme "as an assembly line approach by a healthcare company where dollars apparently mattered more than children." Daniel Levinson, HHS, was shown saying, "This was a matter of profit over compassion." Thomas continued, "The government claims in many cases, Small Smiles Dental Services, which has 68 clinics in 22 states, did procedures on children that were completely unnecessary, including removing teeth, x-rays, anesthesia, even root canals."
CQ HealthBeat (1/20, Reichard) reported, "Federal officials depicted the company as putting great pressure on its dentists to bill Medicaid for dental services and that dentists responded by doing shoddy work and performing unnecessary procedures to boost company revenues."
Bloomberg News (1/20, O'Reilly) reported, "The company admitted no wrongdoing," although Assistant US Attorney General Tony West said that "FORBA fired some dentists for failing to meet standards as a result of the investigation." The Denver Business Journal (1/20) reported, "As part of the settlement, FORBA signed an agreement to change policies at its clinics and establish procedures to detect and ultimately avoid performing unnecessary dental work."
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