<quote>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 10:50:48 -0700
Sender: The DOJ press release mailing list
<PRESSLIST@JUSTICE.DOJ.CA.GOV>
From: NEWSALERTS NEWSALERTS <NEWSALERTS@DOJ.CA.GOV>

[PRESSLIST] Attorney General Charges Central Valley Dentist and 20
Others in $4.5 Million Medi-cal Fraud Scheme

ATTORNEY GENERAL CHARGES CENTRAL VALLEY DENTIST AND 20 OTHERS IN $4.5
MILLION MEDI-CAL FRAUD SCHEME

Dentists Bilked System; Performed Unnecessary Dental Work on
Unsuspecting Patients

(SACRAMENTO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today filed criminal
complaints against 20 dentists throughout the state, charging them
with defrauding the state Medi-Cal System of $4.5 million, health
benefits and workers’ compensation fraud, conspiracy, grand theft,
child abuse, elder abuse, assault and intentional infliction of great
bodily injury.

“These dentists put at risk the health and well-being of hundreds of
children and adults by performing slipshod dental services that were
unnecessary, ignoring health problems that needed tending, and even
skimping on appropriate amounts of anesthesia before submitting
patients to painful procedures,” Lockyer said.  “This office will
continue to aggressively prosecute those who rip off the Medi-Cal
system that more than 6 million poor and elderly Californians depend
on for vital health care.”

Filed in Stanislaus County Superior Court, the complaint charges
Modesto dentist Kyon Maung Teo, who owns Hatch Dental clinics in
Ceres, Stockton and Modesto, with being the mastermind of a scam
involving dentists from throughout the state.  The complaint alleges
Teo, 42, placed advertisements on the back of missing-children flyers
and in PennySaver and DollarSaver publications.  The advertisements
offered gifts or rebates to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and  “new patients”
who sought services at Hatch Dental.
The investigation by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud
and Elder Abuse (BMFEA), assisted by the California Department of
Health Services  (DHS) showed Teo recruited 19 other dentists, who
were paid about 25 percent of the insurance proceeds received by Hatch
Dental for the work they performed.  The kickbacks provided an
incentive to perform unnecessary dental procedures of poor quality,
including unnecessary filings and even unnecessary root canal
procedures.  It was not uncommon for a patient to walk out of Hatch
Dental with 20 or more unnecessary fillings.  To help increase
billings, dental assistants also were instructed to perform procedures
such as cementing crowns, which lawfully can only be performed by
licensed dentists.

Co-defendant Kin Thor Pang, Teo’s wife, was the office manager for all
three Hatch Dental clinics.  The complaint alleges Pang, 33, trained
office staff to complete false dental claims, including changing dates
of service or billing Medi-Cal and private insurance companies for
"emergency" office visits if the patients were ineligible for routine
coverage at the time of service.

The Hatch clinic staffs also were trained to fabricate periodontal
charts and prepare Treatment Authorization Requests (TARs) to obtain
Medi-Cal reimbursement for services based on the fabricated charts.
Claims also were submitted for visits that never occurred and for
non-existent procedures purportedly performed during the fabricated
office visits.  Insurance billing clerks were docked a dollar from
their paycheck for each “mistake” they made.

As part of the conspiracy to defraud the Medi-Cal system, the dentists
committed acts injurious to public health, placing the patients at
risk of pain, infection, loss of teeth and great bodily injury,
including: reusing dental instruments without sterilizing them,
developing treatment plans that called for unnecessary dental
surgeries such as root canals and fillings, performing dental
surgeries without considering the patient’s medical history, providing
numerous shallow fillings in lieu of comprehensive treatment to
patients in need of such treatment, issuing prescriptions for Schedule
III narcotics without documenting the source and type of pain,
forcibly restraining children during dental operations, performing
extensive dental treatment on minors without fully disclosing the
extent of the treatment to the minor’s parent or guardian and
performing dental surgeries without adequate anesthesia.

As the result of a separate investigation conducted by the California
Department of Insurance, Teo and Pang also are charged with committing
Workers’ Compensation premium fraud by grossly understating the
salaries of Hatch employees. The under-reporting resulted in a loss of
$948.19 to Superior National Insurance Company, and $9,154 to Everest
National Insurance Company.

Other dentists named as defendants in the complaint are:
       •     Steve Sangmoon Ahn, 41, of Fullerton
       •     Hoon Young Chang, 34, of Anaheim Hills
       •     Wen Hsiang Chou, 46, of Alhambra
       •     Anthony Halili Galvan, 42, of Dublin
       •     Eduardo Sabater Gerodias, 36, of Modesto
       •     Shahryar Baradaran Hashemi, 37, of Reseda
       •     Keith Yoshikuzu Komaki, 58, of Anaheim
       •     Ricky Hung-Tak Lam, 35, of Antioch
       •     Rahim Mesbah, 49, of Modesto
       •     Duc Sy Nguyen, 33, of Milpitas
       •     Sang-Hyuk “Sean” Park, 35, of Merced
       •     Luis Alexandrino Pinto, 42, of Irvine
       •     Rodolfo Poscablo Ravanera, 57, of Oakland
       •     Behnam Rostami, 48, of Stockton
       •     Williams Defreitas Saraiva, 60, of Irvine
       •     Seyed Mohamed Tarifard, 58, of Stockton
       •     Tri Duy Vu, 32, of Sunnyvale
       •     Shiyu Wang,44 of Alameda
       •     Faruk Cenap Yetek, 43, of Pleasant Hill

Patients who believe they have been victimized by the Hatch Dental
clinic dentists are urged to contact the Attorney General’s Medi-Cal
Fraud Hotline number at 1-800-722-0432.

View this press release on the Attorney General's web site at
http://caag.state.ca.us/newsalerts/2004/04-110.htm

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Regards,

Aribert Deckers