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To: jmiller099 who wrote (241270)	3/17/2010 2:00:55 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 306849

Health insurance in MA soon to be National! AG: Dentist used paper clips in root canals Ex-Fall River doc faces charges By O’Ryan Johnson \| Wednesday, March 17, 2010 \| bostonherald.com \| Local Coverage A former Fall River dentist whose license to practice was suspended in three states has been charged with Medicaid fraud after repeatedly billing for work using the information of other dentists, prosecutors said. Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Medicaid Fraud Unit said Michael J. Clair, who ran Harbour Dental in Fall River, was indicted Friday on five counts of Medicaid fraud, two counts of assault and battery, three counts of larceny over $250, and illegally prescribing two types of drugs. Coakley’s office said the former dentist illegally prescribed painkillers and used parts of paper clips as posts when performing root canals on some MassHealth patients, to save money. “In certain instances, paper clips can be used temporarily, but . . . Clair intended for the paper clips, which can cause infection, discomfort and pain, to be a permanent fix for his patients,” Coakley’s office said in a statement. The charges are the latest in a long slide for Clair, the son of a Maryland dentist, whose career began to unravel in 1999 after the Maryland medicine board accused him of performing unnecessary root canals and filling replacements in order to drive up the bill, Massachusetts state records show. In some cases, the unnecessary dental work forced some patients to have root canals, state records show. Maryland revoked his license in 1999, Florida followed in 2001, and in 2002, Massachusetts started a review of the cases that led to Clair’s licenses being suspended in September 2005. During that time, Clair opened Harbour Dental in Fall River, where Coakley claims he fraudulently billed Medicaid for $130,000 in services between 2003 and 2005, prosecutors said. Clair, who now lives in Maryland, could not be reached for comment. He is due to be arraigned April 8. Article URL: bostonherald.com