A Cleveland dentist is currently under investigation from the United States Health and Human Services, suspected of healthcare fraud for signficantly charging Medicaid for work he doesn’t do.

The Five Points Dental Center office, located in a strip mall in the Collinwood neighborhood, was raided on June 18, with feds seizing things like invoices, medicaid forms, appointment logs, financial records, and bank statements written in Hebrew.

The investigation is solely on dentist Robert Rouzaud who, according to the affidavit by an HHS special agent, is the sole employee of the office. He books the appointments, handles all the record-keeping, and performs all the procedures by himself and the office that was described as unorganized and unsanitary (read the full affidavit below). 

According to the affidavit, Rouzaud would routinely bill Medicaid for services that don’t require pre-authorization — like tooth fillings — while actually doing procedures that required it, like dentures, bridges and pulling teeth. Between December 2010 and May 2014, Rouzaud deposited more than $1,225,219 from Medicaid into his bank account, it says. He’d routinely bill for fillings on the exact same tooth for a number of patients. 

The HHS special agent interviewed some of Rouzaud’s patients and they described shoddy work done in unsanitary conditions that led to untreated open wounds and subsequent infections.

Investigators set up a surveillance camera on a pole outside of the office, and it showed he was the only one working there. He’d often not show up at all, and when he did, it was at random hours. 

Rouzaud has previously been in trouble with the Ohio State Dental Board, which found in 2002 that the dentist was not using FDA-approved devices and was not properly sterilizing the devices between patients.  In 2005, the board found that he failed to diagnose, treat decay and lesions, failed to provide preventative treatment, and overbilled, among other charges. In 2003, Rouzaud settled with the US Department of Justice for $15,000 because of unnecessary Medicaid billing.

Rouzaud has not been charged yet, but here’s the affidavit that led to his office getting raided last week: 


This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.

Doug Brown is a staff writer at Scene with a passion for public records laws and investigative reporting. A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., he has an M.A. in journalism from the Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. in political science from Hiram College. Prior to joining Scene, Doug was a contributing writer for Deadspin.com, reporting behind-the-scenes stories about college sports through public records and developing sources. Doug's work as an enterprise reporter for the Daily Kent Stater was recognized by the Cleveland Press Club (2013 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards), Society of Professional Journalists (regional and national Mark of Excellence Awards), and the Associated Collegiate Press. He spent the summer of 2012 working for the Metro desk of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and spent previous summers working for Outside Bozeman Magazine and Crain's Detroit Business. His website is dougbrown8.com.

One reply on “Accused of Shoddy Work and Bilking Medicaid, Feds Seize Cleveland Dentist’s Records”

  1. Fantastic. I love how these people go to the guy, even knowing that everything is a disaster. If you walk in and it looks like a dive bar, you should get out immediately.

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