IF your health is b-a-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d, CHECK!!! the dental
assistant!

(Dental assistants doing root canal therapy)

Jan sez its b-a-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-.

Joel

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Dentist gets prison in fraud

   
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Dr. Alan Aronowitz

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By David Conti
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, October 7, 2004

On the rare occasions that Dr. Alan Aronowitz actually performed root
canals on patients in his Downtown office, he often finished with a
dentist's version of a touchdown celebration, his former office
manager said Wednesday.

"He'd come out and say, 'I did it all by myself!'" Patricia Burchfield
testified in federal court. "He'd show off the X-rays, and (his wife)
would say, 'That was awesome.'"

Normally, though, Aronowitz, a cocaine addict whom employees often had
to wake up during the work day, would have unlicensed dental
assistants perform the root canals, she said. That's a violation of
state law, and it became a federal crime when he submitted claims to
the patients' insurance companies, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab yesterday sentenced Aronowitz,
58, of Mt. Lebanon, to four years in prison followed by three years of
probation for defrauding four health care providers of up to $344,000
between 1997 and 2002.





Aronowitz, who pleaded guilty to a fraud charge in April, faced up to
10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Schwab ordered Aronowitz to
repay one insurance company about $200,000 and to report to federal
prison in six to eight weeks.

Aronowitz did not testify at the sentencing hearing and declined
comment later. Defense attorney Stanton Levenson, who said he will
appeal the sentence and Schwab's refusal to allow Aronowitz to remain
free on bail, said his client was devastated.

"Dr. Aronowitz has already suffered through the loss of his dental
license and the loss of his reputation," Levenson said. "He's already
been punished."

Levenson presented four character witnesses during the three-hour
hearing, including therapist John D. Massella, who said he began
treating Aronowitz for a cocaine addiction and depression in 1998.

Massella said he did not believe Aronowitz's scheme to defraud the
health providers was motivated by greed.

Gloria Otis, Aronowitz's former office clerk, called him "a very
caring dentist. He loved his patients."

But Burchfield, who worked as a receptionist in Aronowitz's former
office at the Kaufmann's building in 1993, said the dentist pushed
employees to get more money out of patients. When assistants
complained about having to perform procedures such as root canals,
Aronowitz said he did not care, Burchfield said.

Burchfield also said she often analyzed X-rays taken by the
assistants, even though she had only a high school education and no
formal training.

The state Board of Dentistry temporarily suspended Aronowitz's license
in May after he was indicted, Levenson said. A decision on a possible
permanent suspension is expected soon.

In testimony before the board in May and August, Assistant U.S.
Attorney James Wilson said Aronowitz claimed he did not know the
assistants were performing procedures, a contention that two employees
said was untrue.

Wilson said the testimony showed that Aronowitz still hasn't taken
responsibility for his actions and that he deserved to go to jail.

David Conti can be reached at dconti@tribweb.com or (412) 441-0976.

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Downtown dentist pleads guilty to fraud
He billed insurers for underlings' work
Thursday, April 15, 2004

By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After twice backing out of plea deals since his indictment last year,
Dr. Alan I. Aronowitz yesterday appeared in U.S. District Court and
admitted to using dental assistants to perform hundreds of root canals
and then billing insurance companies as if he had done the work.

"How do you plead, sir?" asked U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab.

"Guilty," said Aronowitz, 57, of Mt. Lebanon, who ran his practice in
the Downtown Kaufmann's department store for two decades before moving
to the nearby Park Building last year.

In a lengthy recital of the FBI investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney
James Wilson said Aronowitz used untrained assistants to do the kind
of dental work they aren't allowed to do, particularly root canals.

Four former dental assistants told the FBI that they performed
virtually all of the root canals from 1997 to 2002 in Aronowitz's
nine-room practice on the second floor of the department store.

Aronowitz was in the office for most of them, Wilson said, but he
moved from room to room, opening teeth for the root canal procedure
and then relying on the assistants to do the rest of the job.
Sometimes he left the office entirely and went shopping in Kaufmann's.

The motive, Wilson said, was to get as many root canals done as
possible to generate maximum billing.

One former assistant, Keisha Eifler, said she performed nearly 1,000
root canals and became so proficient that the dentist told her she did
them better than he did.

In 1998, she said, he also presented her with a document he called his
"Ten Commandments." No. 3 was, "I will never complain that I am doing
inappropriate or unlawful tasks."

Aronowitz's lawyer, Stanton Levenson, said his client acknowledged
that he billed insurance companies falsely, but he said the dentist
denies patient complaints that the root canals were done poorly.

"It is his position that they were done competently and
professionally," he said.

Since stories first appeared about the case in the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette last week, dozens of former patients have come forward to
say Aronowitz's staff damaged their teeth.

At the heart of the case is the use of staffers who aren't allowed to
do dental work involving cutting of tissue.

Dental assistants typically help dentists by passing instruments,
retracting gum tissue or suctioning the mouth. They can sometimes take
X-rays or impressions.

"Expanded function" assistants, who have been trained and certified,
can do additional work like positioning rubber dental dams or placing
amalgam. At all times they have to be supervised by the dentist.

Dental hygienists are licensed professionals who specialize in
preventive dentistry, such as applying fluoride or sealants and
cleaning teeth. They also have to be supervised.

In Aronowitz's case, his assistants were not trained for any expanded
duties and often were not supervised, Wilson said. Eifler said the
"Ten Commandments" document required her to describe herself as an
expanded duties assistant when she wasn't one. She refused to sign it.

However, even if the assistants had the extra training, they are
forbidden by law to do a root canal.

Dr. Thomas Braun, dean of the dental school at the University of
Pittsburgh, said in an FBI search warrant affidavit that having
untrained people doing root canals is dangerous.

"Dr. Braun stated if root canals are performed by an individual
without the proper training, numerous complications could occur, to
include the loss of the tooth, numbness in the lips/face, inflammation
of the gums, and in the worst case scenario, the patient could die,"
wrote FBI Agent Robert Zalno.

In a root canal, a hole is made in the top of the tooth. Sharp
instruments, like files and reamers, are inserted into the pulp
chamber and down to the tooth root.

The success rate of a root canal procedure is 95 to 98 percent when
performed by a competent practitioner. Done by inexperienced and
untrained assistants, the procedure could cause severe damage.

The government's case was built on patient records, insurance billings
and testimony from former assistants, former office manager Patricia
Burchfield, three dental anesthesiologists and patients "too numerous
to name" who said dental assistants did the work, Wilson said.

Burchfield, who received immunity along with Eifler, had no training
at all but read X-rays before giving advice to the assistants about
root canals.

One assistant, Raymond Perez, worked in the office even though he had
been convicted in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg of falsely telling
the Pennsylvania State Board of Dentistry he had graduated from dental
school when he hadn't.

Aronowitz's wife, Ronnee, the office manager for the practice before
Burchfield, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1994 in U.S. District
Court.

The couple, who filed for bankruptcy in 2002, have had repeated
run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service and local governments over
unpaid taxes.

In the mid-1990s, the IRS filed several federal tax liens for hundreds
of thousands of dollars against them for not paying income taxes.

Allegheny County records also show the couple owe $1,716 in county
property taxes. They also owe Mt. Lebanon $1,460, although records
show they recently settled a $6,631 delinquent tax lien filed by the
Mt. Lebanon School District.

Aronowitz remains free pending sentencing on July 22. The amount of
prison time he could face depends on the dollar loss suffered by the
insurance companies. That loss is in dispute, so a hearing to figure
it out will be held July 15.

Levenson said Aronowitz, who advertises his services on cable TV, will
continue to practice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Torsten Ove can be reached at tove@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620.)