Dentist sentenced for $200K in Medicaid fraud

A dentist in Connecticut was sentenced on March 4 for reportedly billing Medicaid for about $200,000 in dental work that he never performed, according to a press release dated March 4 from the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.

Christian O’Connor, 54, a dentist who owns Renew Dental in North Haven, was sentenced to five years in prison, execution of that time suspended, as well as three years of a conditional discharge.

O’Connor, who pleaded nolo contendere in November 2023 to charges of larceny in the first degree by defrauding a public community and health insurance fraud, paid $200,484 in restitution, and was ordered not to act as a Medicaid provider, according to the release.

Between 2016 and 2020, O’Connor purportedly routinely billed for restorations on multiple teeth on the same date of service for numerous patients. The work could not be substantiated in dental records, and multiple patients denied having major dental work done though O’Connor billed for it. Some of the claims he reportedly submitted were for restorations on teeth that had already been extracted.

The investigation revealed that the Connecticut Medicaid Program paid $200,484 to O’Connor for the work he never performed, according to the release.