FORMER DENTIST SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR MEDICAID FRAUD

(HOUSTON) – Former dentist David Lloyd Gonzales Jr., of Pasadena, Texas, has been sentenced to prison for health care fraud, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today.

Gonzales, 47, was convicted following trial by a jury’s verdict in August 2010 of 22 counts of health care fraud and aiding and abetting health care fraud. On Monday, Jan. 24, 2011, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt to 12 months and one day on each of the counts to be followed by a three-year-term of supervised release. The sentences are to be served concurrently. In addition, the court ordered Gonzales to pay $2200 in special assessments ($100 for each count of conviction) immediately and $103,000 in restitution to Medicaid. Upon release from prison, Gonzales has been ordered to perform 100 hours of community service as a condition of his supervised release. Gonzales surrendered his dental license in September 2010 to the Texas Dental Board after being convicted.
 
The charges and his subsequent convictions for health care fraud arise from Gonzales billing Medicaid for dental work he did not perform, such as root canals, crowns, filings and the extraction of impacted wisdom teeth. He was suspended from the Medicaid program in 2005. Medicaid pays for dental services for low-income children, from infancy to age 21.

Gonzales has been permitted to remain on bond pending the issuance of an order to surrender to a Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated in the near future.

This case was the result of the investigative efforts of the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit in Houston and the United States Attorney’s  Office. Special Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne Bradley prosecuted the case.

 

# # #