Affordable Dental Care Unavailable To One-Third Of Americans: Report

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. Stunning revelation about private-equity-backed dental corporations grabbing cash from taxpayers

State regulatory boards generally have the power to lift the licenses of individual dentists, but no power to regulate such corporate dental practices as monthly bonuses for high volumes of unnecessary procedures that pay the highest Medicaid reimbrsements (Connecticut seems to be an exception to the pattern).

This regulation gap tied to taxpayer-funded benefits seems to be earning millions of dollars for private equity, just like the vulnerability of defined-benefit pension funds that made Mitt Romney the model for Gordon Gekko. Just grab the cash and dump the liabilities on taxpayers through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation or through Medicaid.