The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin stated on Friday that a Wisconsin dentist was found guilty of shattering his patients’ teeth, billing them for repairs, and then collecting insurance money.
According to a news release from the office, Scott Charmoli, 61, was also convicted of making false statements connected to health care matters in the conspiracy from 2015 to 2019.
“The evidence presented at trial established that Scott Charmoli engaged in a years-long scheme to defraud dental insurance companies into paying for unnecessary crown procedures,” added the office.
“The evidence showed that, beginning in 2015, Charmoli started to aggressively sell patients on the need for crown procedures. After convincing patients they needed crowns, Charmoli intentionally broke his patients’ teeth with his drill and took pictures and X-rays of the damage he caused.”
Officials allege Charmoli purposefully broke his patients’ teeth with his drill after telling them they required crowns and taking images and X-rays of the damage he did.
He then sent photos of the damage to insurance providers in order to get payment for the crown operations.
The office said, “Insurance companies assumed that those images of damage represented the pre-operative condition of the teeth, and as a result, paid the claims. Many of Charmoli’s patients also paid significant co-pays for these crown procedures.”
Charmoli billed over $4.2 million for crown procedures between 2016 and 2019 and he performed more than 700 crowns each year from 2015 to 2019.
A federal grand jury accused him in December on multiple counts of healthcare fraud and making false statements about healthcare topics.
Charmoli, who lives in Grafton, Wis., allegedly began his scheme in January 2016 by falsely advising patients that they needed crowns.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17.
Charmoli faces a maximum term of 10 years imprisonment for each health care fraud conviction and a maximum term of five years of imprisonment for each false statement conviction.
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Sources: Scallywagandvagabond, Washingtonpost, Dailymail
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