Attorney General James Teams With Federal Prosecutors to Make Dental Clinics Agree to Pay $2.7 Million for Alleged Use of Unsterilized Tools
NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), together with the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York and Pennsylvania, has reached an agreement with a health care system operating several clinics in the Southern Tier of New York and Pennsylvania for allegedly treating patients with unsterilized and potentially dangerous tools. An agreement unsealed yesterday with the Upper Allegheny Health System (UAHS) — a domestic not-for-profit corporation that operates several dental clinics in the Southern Tier — resolved claims made by a former employee alleging that UAHS billed Medicaid for dental services where it failed to sterilize dental handpieces between patients. As part of the agreement, UAHS has agreed to pay $2.7 million to the United States, New York, and Pennsylvania — $2.4 million of which will, specifically, resolve claims pertaining to New York’s Medicaid program ($1.4 million will go to New York and $1 million will go to the federal government).