Dentist jailed for submitting 25 false Chas claims worth more than S$18,000

SINGAPORE — A dentist was sentenced to 46 weeks' jail by the State Courts on Wednesday (June 3) after pleading guilty to cheating the Community Health Assist Scheme (Chas). He was one of the first people in Singapore to be charged with doing so.

Teo Eu Gene, 36, submitted false Chas claims to deceive two polyclinic groups into believing that he had performed dental procedures when he had not.

The court heard that Teo claimed a total of S$31,583, of which S$18,618.50 was for fictitious procedures on 15 of his patients.

Teo pleaded guilty to 25 charges of cheating. Five other similar charges and another 30 charges for falsification of accounts were taken into consideration for his sentence.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) introduced Chas in 2000 to offer lower-income patients subsidies for treatments at medical and dental clinics.

On behalf of MOH, two polyclinic groups, SingHealth Polyclinics and National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, process and reimburse Chas claims from participating clinics.

WHAT HAPPENED

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) V Jesudevan told the court that Teo and his wife were the former directors of the Phoenix Dental Surgery dental chain which consisted of two clinics — one in Ang Mo Kio and another at Marine Parade.

The prosecutor said about 60 per cent of Teo’s patients paid for their treatment using the scheme.

Unlike the other dentists within his clinics, DPP Jesudevan said that Teo would submit his own claims under Chas.

Investigations found that between Aug 4, 2014 and Oct 19, 2015, Teo submitted 25 Chas claims to the polyclinics for procedures he did not perform on his patients.

DPP Jesudevan said that Teo had inflated the number of procedures he had actually performed on his patients, which included tooth-coloured fillings and extractions.

To avoid detection, he substantiated his inflated claims by adding false dental procedures into his patients’ medical case notes.

According to court documents, he would include between one and 21 additional procedures — which he had not performed — to the claims, with the highest amount wrongfully claimed being S$1,438.50.

Teo’s scheme came to light on April 22, 2016 when the MOH filed a police report against Teo and another dentist of Phoenix Dental Surgery, Andy Joshua Warren.

According to a Straits Times report on the case last year, Warren was operating under the name of Dr Ng Yu Ming.

MOH conducts regular audits on Chas claims retrospectively, said DPP Jesudevan, to make sure that the procedures claimed were consistent with the documentation in the clinical notes and the subsidy was used in accordance with the Chas dental guidelines.

The ministry had alleged in the police report that both dentists had cheated the polyclinics into disbursing subsidies under Chas, and that both Teo and Warren had submitted false claims.

Warren’s case is still pending.

Teo has since made full restitution in 2016. The two Phoenix Dental Surgery clinics were also taken off Chas that year, which means they can no longer offer their patients the government subsidy.

Teo is not the first dentist to have been charged and sentenced in court for cheating the authorities.

Steven Ang Kiam Hau, who was a dentist at The Smile Division Surgeons @ Orchard, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years' jail in August 2018 for submitting fake claims to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board.

Former national swimmer and dentist, Daniel Liew Yaoxiang, who was from the same clinic as Ang, was sentenced to two years’ jail in May last year for his involvement in the scam.

The penalty for anyone found guilty of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code is a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.