Taxpayers spent $13 million on orthodontic-related expenses through Medicaid last year, according to this story by WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas.  But that cash wasn’t for braces; it was for transporting the patients, an allowable expenditure.

WFAA reports that in Athens, Texas, the public last year paid $142,529 for 1,797 trips to the Orthodontics Centers of America for Medicaid-eligible children.

At a Richardson clinic, the total travel charges were $25,000. At one in Corpus Christi, $56,900.

WFAA and reporter Byron Harris have done a tight job reporting on Medicaid dental costs, exposing a dentist who profits from the Texas Medicaid

Orthodontic program who flies around on private jets, and, separately, the work has prompted a federal investigation.

Some of the dentists mentioned in the stories have been sanctioned by the state. The high-flying dentist Harris investigated, Richard Malouf, was fined $3,000 in 2004 for failing to keep complete records on four patients between 1999 and 2003.

The Richardson dentist, Stephen Chu, was fined $1,000 and required to take six hours of continuing education classes in hygiene and records management stemming from a 2004 case.

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Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo 'Before Braces' by flickr user StarrGazr, used via a Creative Commons license.