The Delaware Attorney General's (AG) Office is asking the state dental board to temporarily suspend the license of a pediatric dentist who was arrested last month on 20 counts of felony healthcare fraud but was subsequently allowed to continue treating patients at her Wilmington practice.
On August 17, Marieve Rodriguez, D.M.D., was arrested and charged with submitting numerous claims to the state Medicaid program for dental services on children that were never performed, according to the AG's office. She was ordered not to practice dentistry, treat any patients, or write any prescriptions while the charges are pending.
The original charges stem from a 13-month investigation by the AG's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit that was initiated following a referral from the Delaware Division of Health and Social Services Medicaid Program Integrity Unit and a tip received through the AG's Medicaid Fraud Hotline.
But on August 30, Court of Common Pleas Judge John Welch removed conditions prohibiting Dr. Rodriguez from practicing dentistry or writing prescriptions. Later that day, however, Dr. Rodriguez was arrested on four counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, forgery, or deception, according to a story in the News Journal.
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