Three dental practices in Southwest Washington have reached a settlement with the state attorney general over allegations of fraudulent Medicaid billing. According to a report from FOX 13 Seattle, the agreement resolves cases tied to how the practices billed the public health program, with the offices agreeing to pay to put the matter behind them. The settlement brings to a close a set of allegations centered on billing practices that authorities said did not square with what was actually provided to patients or properly documented.
The practices named in the settlement are Tooth Docs of Camas, along with Comfort Dental and Dentists at Felida, both of Vancouver. Together, the three offices will pay more than 1 million dollars to resolve the cases. The combined figure reflects the total across the separate agreements reached with the state, with each practice responsible for a portion tied to the specific allegations leveled against it. The arrangement allows the offices to settle the claims without the matter proceeding further.
Tooth Docs accounts for the largest single share of the payout, agreeing to pay a half a million dollars. According to the report, that sum is tied to miscoded billings between 2017 and 2023. The years involved point to a billing pattern that authorities say stretched across several years rather than a one-time error, and the half-million-dollar figure underscores the scale of the claims attached to that practice in particular as part of the overall settlement.
Among the specific allegations against Tooth Docs was that it charged Medicaid for prescription pain treatments but provided ibuprofen instead. In other words, the practice is accused of billing the program for a higher-level pain treatment while actually dispensing a common over-the-counter medication. That gap between what was billed and what was given to patients sits at the heart of the miscoding allegations, illustrating the kind of discrepancy the state said it found when it reviewed the practice's billing.
Comfort Dental was also flagged for miscoding in the case. The practice was accused of billing Medicaid for more expensive pain treatments, a similar theme to the allegations elsewhere in the settlement, where the charges submitted to the program did not match the care that was actually delivered. To resolve its part of the matter, Comfort Dental will pay about 230,000 dollars, a smaller figure than Tooth Docs but still a substantial sum tied to the billing claims against it.
Dentists at Felida rounds out the three practices in the settlement and will pay over 360,000 dollars. In its case, the issue was billing Medicaid for procedures without proper documentation, meaning the practice sought payment for work that, according to the allegations, was not backed up by the records that should have supported the claims. Taken together, the three settlements paint a picture of billing practices the state attorney general said warranted action, closing the cases with payments that add up to more than 1 million dollars.