August 25, 2014 — Because Medicaid is funded in part with federal tax dollars, taxpayers in every state have an interest in ensuring that dental Medicaid claims across the country are legitimate. The federal False Claims Act helps dental clinic insiders to make a difference by filing a qui tam lawsuit on the government’s behalf. The statute’s whistleblower provisions entitle whistleblowers to a sizable share of the government’s recovery.
Kentucky Charges That Dentist Filed False Claims With State Medicaid Program For Procedures Never Done
The trial of a Kentucky dentist who was indicted in December 2009 on Medicaid fraud charges has been scheduled for April 2015. For Ronald Ray Hungerbuhler, of Corbin, Kentucky, this is his fourth trial setting on the charges.
The seven count indictment alleges that from 2003 to 2009, Hungerbuhler billed Kentucky’s Medicaid program for procedures that the dentist did not perform. Hungerbuhler reportedly obtained a list of Medicaid beneficiaries who lived at the Christian Health Care Nursing Home in Corbin. For several years running, in January, the dentist allegedly billed Medicaid for oral examinations on the nursing home residents that were not in fact performed. Each of Hungerbuhler’s allegedly fraudulent Medicaid claims was valued at $300 or more.
Putting An End To Dental Medicaid Fraud
Kentucky is not the only state plagued by dental Medicaid fraud. While Waters & Kraus is not handling this particular case, we are representing whistleblowers in similar False Claims Act lawsuits. In Texas, for example, our qui tam lawyers, Charles Siegel and Dan Hargrove, have been working with whistleblowers to help the state redress false Medicaid claims. If you have similar claims against a different dental clinic, email us or call our qui tam attorneys at 855.784.0268 to learn more about our practice and how we can work together to notify the government about fraudulent abuses of government-funded programs, like Medicaid.
