Litigations
MASSHEALTH VIOLATIONS & MOMA LITIGATIONS:
The Medicaid Act provides federal funding to every state for children under 21 years of age. Every state must comply with the Medicaid Act in order to receive Federal funds. Massachusetts receives Federal funds, but intentionally violates the Medicaid Act daily. This is illegal and MOMA exposes it.
The most recent proof of this intentional violation is found in the December 2020 Court Order against MassHealth and the Attorney General’s office. The Court Order can be found at
https://www.masslegalservices.org/content/court-enjoins-masshealth-orthodontia-changes
This behavior has gone on since 2012, and Dr. Mouhab Z Rizkallah has sued 3 TIMES to protect poor children from these violations:
MOMA LAWSUIT #1 (2014-2016):
This lawsuit was filed after Dr. Brent Martin, then dental director of MassHealth, adopted a new Orthodontic-Severity measurement tool in 2012 that unfairly eliminated coverage for needy underprivileged children. Discovery documents clearly showed that Dr. Martin knew all orthodontic studies disagreed with his use of the measurement tool. He adopted it to obstruct thousands of kids from their rightful Federally mandated coverage. Kids suffered between 2012 and 2016, until MOMA, led by Dr. Mouhab Z Rizkallah forced MassHealth into Federal compliance. MOMA Sued
After years of litigation, MOMA settled the case, with MassHealth changing their policy and paying MOMA President (Dr. Mouhab Rizkallah) $50,000 in attorney fees, since he personally funded the lawsuit.
Dr. Rizkallah donated all $50,000 to the National Health Law Program, which you can read about at https://healthlaw.org/news/litigation-brings-improved-access-to-dental-health-care-for-low-income-children-in-massachusetts/
MOMA LAWSUIT #2 (2017 – 2020):
This lawsuit was filed after Mr. Russell Leino (Attorney for MassHealth) created regulations that would force doctors to bill “prospectively.” MassHealth declared that doctors must start billing forward for treatments that they had not occurred yet. Not only was this nonsensical, it also constituted fraudulent billing, and dental software is not designed to do this. In reality, Mr. Leino was trying to shut down MassHealth orthodontics by trying to get all doctors to quit serving MassHealth patients. But MOMA sued and filed a complaint against Mr. Russell Leino with the Governor
The policy was reversed under an “emergency reversal” order, which you can read at https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/02/16/den-99.pdf
Mr. Russell Leino was not terminated, and has instead retaliated by attacking MOMA leadership personally using his governmental legal position.
MOMA LAWSUIT #3 (2020 – PRESENT):
In 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic, “someone” at MassHealth declared that MassHealth was re-defining standard diagnostic terms (for orthodontics). To date, MassHealth will not indicate who this “someone” is, but we know this change occurred somewhere between the exit of Dr. Donna Jones and the entrance of Dr. Catherine Hayes as Dental Director of MassHealth. The changes would force doctors to intentionally misdiagnose children that have MassHealth. Essentially, a poor child would get a different diagnosis compared to a well-off child, even though both had the same condition. MOMA sued.
On December 14, 2020 MOMA and Dr. Mouhab Z. Rizkallah were awarded an injunction against MassHealth and Attorney General Maura Healey’s attempt to force doctors to misdiagnose poor children. Attorney General Maura Healey tried to persuade the court that the changes were not meant to reduce approvals, but the Court decision indicated: “…..the defendants were aware that the instructional changes would cause approvals to drop.” and “‘… the court is not persuaded.”
After losing in court, Attorney General Maura Healey launched a media campaign against Dr. Mouhab Z. Rizkallah, accusing him of MassHealth violations that are not violations in the regulations. Dr. Rizkallah has no concerns about the legal basis of the violation claims, but the harm to his reputation, his companies, and his family are real. Healey is abusing her position to chill the activities of her opponent. Dr. Rizkallah is suing Attorney General Healey for Defamation, and expects to win on that claim.