A lot of egregious wrongdoing became public in 2010 as a result of qui tam cases brought by whistleblowers. If you follow these cases on a regular basis-as we do-you begin to realize how surprisingly widespread fraud and abuse is in government programs, and particularly in government-funded healthcare programs, where a huge percentage of the qui tam action is these days. (See the piece below, on recent Department of Justice statistics.) but we decided to pick out the worst-of-the-worst, and present one of them with our “Bad Actor Of The Year” award.
Our “Bad Actor Of The Year” award goes to . . . FOBRA Holdings LLC, for orchestrating a scheme that included unnecessary fillings and root canals performed on babies. FOBRA, a dental management company that ran a nationwide chain of children’s dental clinics under the brand “Small Smiles Centers,” agreed in 2010 to pay approximately $24 million to settle allegations, initially made by three qui tam whistleblowers, that it caused bills to be submitted to state Medicaid programs for medically unnecessary dental services-including fillings and root canals-performed on children. Yes, they were drilling for profits, at the expense of children. Congratulations to FOBRA Holdings LLC.