This morning, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) announced its fourth settlement from an ongoing joint investigation into the problem of Medicaid referral kickbacks, a scheme in which healthcare providers pay third parties to refer them Medicaid patients. Today’s settlement was to the tune of $495,721 and was entered into by Advanced Dental Center PC, a Norwalk-based dental office owned by Tal and Elad Yossefi.
“Paying kickbacks for patient recruitment is illegal,” said Attorney General William Tong. “Dentists participating in Connecticut’s public healthcare programs are responsible for knowing the law.”
Per the AGO’s release, Advanced Dental is enrolled in the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program (CMAP), a program overseen by the State’s Department of Social Services through which it administers the state’s Medicaid plans. Advanced Dental was alleged to have paid a “patient recruiting company,” or a third-party company that makes money off of provider kickbacks for Medicaid patient referrals, from the period of July 1 to December 1, 2018. Advanced Dental allegedly paid the company $120 per patient referred to them whose services exceeded preventative care, thus exceeding their $1,000 annual Medicaid benefit.
Paying kickbacks for Medicaid patient referral is strictly prohibited under federal anti-kickback statutes, as well as the CMAP provider agreement and the Connecticut Dental Health Partnership Manual. Per federal anti-kickback laws, those found guilty can be...
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