Nominee for Most Horrible Person of the Year: Dentist broke his patients' teeth to charge for crowns

[thewayne]

Putin is not in this category, because he's not horrible, he's evil.

This dentist apparently thought his billings were low with doing cleanings and fillings and thought crowns would do the trick! This is really horrible: he would show a spot on a healthy tooth's x-ray that probably indicated a need for a filling, tell the patient that it indicated a fracture, and thus a crown, get to work with his drill, fracturing the tooth. THEN he'd shoot a second x-ray because "Insurance is going to want to see this!" and send THAT x-ray to insurance as proof that there was a need for the crown!

From the article: "The alleged scheme by licensed Grafton dentist Scott Charmoli, 61, appears to have begun in 2015, when the number of crowns he installed abruptly increased. In 2015, Charmoli installed 1,036 crowns, well over the 434 crowns he did in 2014. Amid the royal boom, his income increased by more than $1 million, going from $1.4 million in 2014 to $2.5 million in 2015, according to court documents.

From 2016 to 2019, Charmoli billed insurers and patients over $4.2 million for crown procedures, according to federal prosecutors. In each of those years, Charmoli ranked at or above the 95th percentile for the number of crowns installed by dentists in the state. An executive from a dental insurance company testified during Charmoli's four-day trial that Wisconsin dentists installed, on average, fewer than six crowns per 100 patients in 2019. Yet court documents show that in 2019, Charmoli installed 881 crowns for his 1,131 patients—a rate of about 78 crowns per 100 patients."

78 crowns per 100 patients? 78% of the patients needing crowns?! WTF!!!

I remember another dental malpractice case in California where the doc was doing root canals like they were going out of style. Made a fortune until he got caught and convicted and went to prison.

The last, and truly final, paragraph: "Last week, the jury found Charmoli guilty of five counts of health care fraud and two counts of making false statements related to health care matters. Charmoli now faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count of health care fraud and a maximum of five years for each false statement conviction. His sentencing is scheduled for June 17. Nearly 100 former patients are also suing him."

61 y/o dentist facing 30 years. He had better act REALLY contrite! Feds don't let people out early for good behavior, you serve your full sentence. Dude is going to die in prison if he gets max.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/03/dentist-guilty-of-deliberately-breaking-teeth-cashing-in-on-crown-repairs/

Comments

[jim_p]

My own dentist is set up to do one-day crowns in-house, and he told me the setup costs $160,000. I can imagine the burning desire to recoup one's investment, but there are plenty enough rotten teeth out there that could legitimately use this so that one shouldn't need to resort to creating damage...

[dewline]

One would think so, given such facts of dental care life. Looks like this one dentist didn't agree with reality, though.

[thewayne]

I studied accounting - not up to the professional level - and can understand and appreciate the desire to recover that cost. But even at $160k, I would expect he has a larger practice and gets a fair amount of use out of it. Between depreciation and use, he's probably recovering the investment and realizing profit pretty quick.

Is it a 3D printer plus a computer-controlled milling machine? I've seen setups like that several years ago and they're pretty awesome.

But if my dentist damaged my teeth on purpose just to make more money, I'd be right there in line filing a suit against him.

[disneydream06]

Putin is not in this category, because he's not horrible, he's evil.
That is well put. :o

Nearly 100 former patients are also suing him.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I mean, Putin is a horrible person, but I think horrible is vastly outweighed by his evil nature.

[disneydream06]

Evil definitely outweighs Horrible. :o

[silveradept]

Apparently, the large amounts of money that someone can make for dental practice weren't large enough or fast enough for this dentist? I have to wonder how many of those patients had to pay for their now necessary crowns out of their own pockets because their insurance didn't cover it.

[thewayne]

Excellent point! I’ve never understood why dental work is not a basic coverage point for medical insurance. Even under NHS and other proper first world countries that have medical coverage as a fundamental right, dental care is pretty basic and a lot of people take out supplemental policies.

[silveradept]

I don't know why people think teeth are optional, either.

That said, I don't even know if my plan covers crowns, and the maximums, both of year and lifetime, seem ridiculously small for someone who needed to have any sort of tooth work done, and especially if they're getting insurance after not having it for a while. I also know a different plan doesn't cover crowns at all. Maybe they think they're cosmetic. They will pay for extractions instead, so if you're in crap insurance, taking care of tooth problems probably means waiting until you can't deal with it anymore and then the tooth gets pulled, instead of something more sensible. Because if course you'll get discriminated against if you don't have a perfect smile to get the public with.

[thewayne]

My dad is getting a lot of work done.  Being born during the Depression, he needs a lot of work done!  He's going to a dental college and getting a huge discount, but it's still costing a lot.  It's just ridiculous.