Murfreesboro dentist Nate Schott, former employee facing federal health care fraud charges

Brinley Hineman | Murfreesboro Daily News Journal

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A Murfreesboro dentist is facing federal health care fraud charges for operating a scheme to defraud health care benefits, the Department of Justice said.

Richard N. Schott, 51, surrendered to U.S. Marshals in Nashville last week, according to a news release issued on Monday. Kendra L. Glenn, 43, of Hartwell, Georgia, and formerly of Murfreesboro, was arrested Monday morning at her home in Georgia. Schott was charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and Glenn was charged with seven counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiracy.

Schott, a licensed dentist, owns and operates Dental Excellence in Murfreesboro and Lebanon. Glenn served as the administrator of the dental practice, according to court documents.

Schott is a co-founder of TrustPoint Hospital on Thompson Lane near Medical Center Parkway. He previously served as chairman of the Rutherford County Republican Party, was a member of the county's Industrial Development Board and is the owner of TN Professional Training Institute, a school to train dental assistants.

Schott and Glenn instructed employees to commit fraud

Court documents say that Schott and Glenn submitted and made employees submit false and fraudulent claims between November 2013 and January 2018.

Claims included billing for dental work that hadn't been completed; falsifying dates of services to appear to comply with benefit programs' time frames; falsifying claims to appear that services had been performed by a credentialed dentist; adding false language to claims to make it appear that more expensive services had been provided; and falsifying supporting documents and adding false narratives to support the claims.

They also continued to submit false claims after being advised by insurance companies that audits had fraudulent claims and that the office was being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, according to court documents.

Schott and Glenn discouraged employees from questioning billing practices, instructed employees to lie to insurance companies, and disciplined and fired employees who questioned the legality of billing practices. If a patient questioned false billing charges, employees were instructed to tell patients that it was a billing error that would be corrected, documents say.

The allegations say Schott and Glenn used the money for personal use and Glenn was paid bonuses based on the amount of money collected from the scheme. Schott tried to make it appear that Glenn was solely responsible for the fraud and was unaware of the scheme.

Schott tricked insurances, documents say

According to court documents, in February 2014, Schott submitted an application to DentaQuest to allow him to treat patients at his Lebanon office. He was approved to treat TennCare patients at that location beginning March 10, 2014, through March 9, 2017. During this time, no dentists were approved to treat patients at the Murfreesboro offices.

DentaQuest was under contract with TennCare to administrate their dental benefits program, documents say. To bill TennCare, a dentist had to be credentialed.

In December 2014 through August 2015, DentaQuest audited the dental practice based on allegations that Dental Excellence was billing for crowns at an "unusually high rate." Schott was aware of the audit and allegations.

Delta Dental also conducted an audit in May 2016 through December 2016 based on allegations tat the office had billed for services that weren't provided. Schott was aware of the audit and allegations, documents say.

If convicted, Schott and Glenn face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@gannett.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.