A Wisconsin dentist who intentionally damaged patients‘ teeth to boost profits and raked in millions was found guilty of healthcare fraud and other charges.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Scott Charmoli, 61, was convicted last Thursday on five counts of healthcare fraud and two counts of falsely representing his client’s treatments.
In June, Charmoli faced up to ten years in prison for each healthcare fraud charge and a maximum of five years for each of the two remaining charges.
According to the Washington Post, prosecutors claim Charmoli frequently drilled or damaged his clients’ teeth, then charged them for additional treatment services to repair the damage.
As a result, Charmoli’s earnings skyrocketed, rising from $1.4 million in 2014 and 434 crowns installed to $2.5 million in 2015 and over 1,000 crowns installed.
According to prosecutors, Charmoli began pressuring his clients in 2015 to receive unneeded crowns, which is a dental surgery that involves placing a tooth-shaped cap on a broken tooth.
Charmoli would intentionally drill or break his clients’ teeth and submit X-rays of the damage to insurance as “before” images to justify the crown treatments.
One patient, Todd Tedeschi, testified that Charmoli pressured him into getting two crowns in one appointment.
“It seemed excessive, but I didn’t know any better,” said Tedeschi. “He was the professional. I just trusted him.”
Prosecutor Julie Stewart said in 2020 that many of his patients were vulnerable.
“Some of these patients were extremely vulnerable individuals in abusive relationships, recently widowed, survivors of cancer and living paycheck to paycheck scrounging to afford the co-pays required for the unnecessary procedures he was billing,” she said.
Charmoli billed more than $4.2 million for crowns from 2016 to 2019, performing more crowns than 95% of Wisconsin dentists during that time. While the average Wisconsin dentist performs fewer than six crowns per 100 patients, his rate topped 32 crowns per 100 patients, according to testimony from an insurance company executive.
Charmoli had over $6.8 million in assets by the end of 2020, including vacation houses in Wisconsin and Arizona.
Over 100 of Charmoli‘s former patients are suing for medical malpractice, and those cases are expected to begin after his criminal prosecution is completed.
During Charmoli‘s December 2020 arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty, his lawyers said Charmoli was only guilty of “hard work.”
Defense attorney Nila Robinson said, “He certainly denies that his hard-earned wealth of many, many years of dental practice at the 40 to 60 hour per week range are the product of anything other than his own diligence, hard work and good business acumen.”
Eventually, Charmoli‘s schemes were discovered when he sold his dental practice in 2019. When reviewing his files, the new owners noticed the high number of crown procedures he performed and reported him to the authorities.
“The health and safety of patients is my highest concern as a doctor. As medical professionals, we take an oath to ‘do no harm’ to our patients, which is why I felt the ethical obligation to report activity that I believed to be suspicious,” wrote the Practices owner Pako Major on the company website.
Charmoli’s dental license was suspended by state authorities in February 2021 pending disciplinary action.
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