A Charleston dentist who falsely billed West Virginia Medicaid for more than $ 700,000 was sentenced today to 5 years in federal prison. Skaff, a dentist, admitted that he falsely inflated his billings (a practice commonly known as upcoding) by falsely claiming reimbursement for procedures involving impacted teeth (typically, only wisdom teeth are impacted). However, Skaff upcoded billings for tooth extractions by falsely informing Medicaid that he performed more complex procedures, such as extractions of impacted teeth, when he had actually performed simple procedures. Because Skaff upcoded these extractions, Medicaid paid $ 172 per tooth, much more than for a simple extraction.
The post Charleston dentist sentenced to five years in federal prison for health care fraud appeared first on The Coding Network.