Friday, May 20, 2016

Former Sacramento dentist gets prison time for health care fraud




A former Sacramento dentist who submitted false claims and performed unnecessary dental procedures was sentenced Thursday in federal court to prison time.

David M. Lewis, 62, of Sacramento, targeted employees of United Parcel Service, whose dental plan provided 100 percent coverage without annual limits.

“This defendant went well beyond the lies one normally finds at the root of a fraud scheme,” said acting U.S. attorney Phillip Talbert, in a news release. “He not only plundered funds meant to provide essential services, he inflicted pain and suffering on his patients through the performance of unnecessary medical procedures, all in the name of additional profit.”

According to court documents, Lewis offered patients cash for receiving treatments and for recruiting other UPS employees to get treatment.

Between 2008 and 2009, Lewis had employees file claims to Delta Health Systems for work that was not performed. In other cases, prosecutors say, the dentist performed unnecessary work. In some cases, he installed temporary fillings, which he then had assistants X-ray, so he could show what he described as tooth decay, which he would then fix with restorative work.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Dental Board of California. Assistant U.S. attorney Todd Pickles prosecuted.

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