NASHVILLE, Tenn. – June 7, 2019 - Richard N. Schott, 51, of
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was sentenced today to 33 months in federal prison for
operating a scheme to defraud healthcare benefit programs, announced U.S.
Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee. Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly D.
Crenshaw, Jr., also ordered Schott to pay $956,448.00 in restitution.
Schott, a licensed dentist, and his former practice
administrator, Kendra Glenn, were charged in November 2018 with conspiracy to
commit healthcare fraud. Schott pleaded
guilty in November and Glenn, also facing seven counts of healthcare fraud, is
scheduled for trial on December 3, 2019.
Schott owned and operated Dental Excellence, a dental
practice with three locations in Murfreesboro and one location in Lebanon,
Tennessee. Between November 2013 and
January 2018, Schott caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to
healthcare benefit programs, including Delta Dental, Cigna, TennCare and
DentaQuest, TennCare’s dental benefits program administrator. The fraudulent claims included billing for
dental work that had not been completed or performed at all; falsifying dates
of service to appear to comply with benefit programs’ timeframe and
preauthorization requirements; falsifying claims to appear that services had
been rendered by a benefits program credentialed dentist; falsifying supporting
documents and adding false narratives to support the upcoding of claims; and
others, including continuing to submit false claims after being advised by
insurance companies that audits had determined a pattern of false claims and
that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was conducting a criminal
investigation into the company’s billing practices.
Schott took steps to conceal the fraud by discouraging
employees from questioning billing practices; instructing employees to lie if
questioned by insurance companies; and disciplining and even firing employees
who questioned the legality of the billing practices. Schott used the proceeds from the fraudulent
scheme for his own personal use and paid bonuses to Glenn based on the amount
of money collected from the fraudulent scheme.
As a result of Schott’s fraudulent scheme, many patients
were forced to wait months and even years in pain, to have necessary dental
work completed by other dentists, while their insurance companies resolved the
false claims.
As noted above, Schott was ordered to pay restitution to
TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, which is funded by state and federal
tax dollars and provides medical and dental care to certain minors and indigent
individuals.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Kathryn W. Booth, Sarah K. Bogni and Byron Jones.
Kendra Glenn is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a
court of law.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment