Thirteen patients' identities were allegedly used by a Manhattan dentist to wrongly file claims of more than $10,000 from Medicaid, police authorities said on Thursday.
Howard Rothenberg, who has an office in East Harlem but lives in Rockland County, has been accused of scamming Medicaid with over $11,479 in bills that he claimed was used to perform work on 13 patients, New York Post reported.
However when the patients were questioned by authorities about the money, they either said they never heard of him or that they hadn't seen him in years, according to the state attorney general.
"The defendant used his profession as a dentist to place personal gain ahead of his ethics and responsibilities to his patients," said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. "We will continue to hold accountable those individuals, including licensed professionals, who try to cheat the system at the expense of the public trust."
But the 64-year-old's defense attorney has argued that Rothenberg had been duped by the thirteen dishonest patients, according to NYP.
Although he billed the patient's Medicaid cards, he had been unaware that those cards belonged to other people, said defense attorney David Fiveson, adding that the dentist had not intended to illegally bill taxpayers.
"People came in and presented a Medicaid card, and he rendered the services. If somebody who doesn't have Medicaid presents a Medicaid card, how's he supposed to know?" said Fiveson. "There's no photo on the card."
On Thursday, Rothenberg pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny and filing a false instrument at his arraignment Thursday in Manhattan criminal court.
If convicted, the 64-year-old will face a total of 11 years behind bars plus restitution.
