The Texas Supreme Court is considering sending a $16 million Medicaid fraud judgment against a Dallas dentist back to a trial court, according to a Jan. 31 report by Bloomberg Law.
Richard Malouf, DDS, billed the state for hundreds of thousands of dollars for services that he did not perform. His lawyer claimed that Dr. Malouf was confused by the constant changes to Medicaid's billing procedures and that there should have been a jury trial.
The state of Texas originally ordered Dr. Malouf to pay back approximately $16.5 million for committing more than 1,800 violations of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act in August 2020.
More than 1,000 of Dr. Malouf's reimbursement claims contained his Medicaid provider identification but were ultimately performed by other orthodontists.
Dr. Malouf and All Smiles Dental Center, which he founded, paid $1.2 million to the federal government in 2012 to resolve allegations that they violated the federal False Claims Act and the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.
Multiple justices on the Texas Supreme Court seem to lean toward sending the case back to a trial court to let a jury decide the winner, the report said.