Texas nets $1B in Medicaid fraud recoveries; is dentistry at a crossroads?

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

The Texas Attorney General's Office has recovered more than $1 billion from Medicaid fraud investigations over the last 10 years, including $1.8 million in dental Medicaid fraud. But dozens of investigations into alleged fraud at dental offices are ongoing and are expected to yield more recoveries. Read more.

Meanwhile, integrated medical and dental electronic health records offer multiple advantages for clinical and research applications, including identifying associations between periodontitis and multiple medical conditions that could help guide clinical care, according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology.

And today we introduce a new feature series, Dentistry at a Crossroads, authored by Dr. William T. Brown. In his first column, Dr. Brown makes a case for doing practice self-appraisals to improve team dynamics and patient communication and outlines a system for astute decision-making that dentists can use when tackling what he calls the "Big Issues."