BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Two dentists in Redwood Shores pleaded no contest yesterday to charges that they committed insurance fraud by, among other things, billing an insurance company for dental work that wasn’t done.
Rocky Dhaliwal, 52, and his wife, Jesse Dhaliwal, 44, operate Redwood Shores Dental at 278 Redwood Shores Parkway and between May 2012 and February 2018, engaged in numerous types of billing fraud, according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Delta Dental Insurance contacted Wagstaffe’s office and the two agencies investigated the Dhaliwals together, comparing patient files with insurance bills submitted to Delta Dental.
Wagstaffe said the investigation revealed that the Dhaliwals committed numerous types of insurance fraud, including:
• submitting the work that other dentists had done as Rocky Dhaliwal’s work,
• reporting false dates of service of patients,
• billing patients for unnecessary services, and
• charging for services that were never completed and charging patients more than what their work was actually worth.
It was discovered that the Dhaliwals had charged $226,103 in fraudulent bills to Delta Dental, and $195,561 had been paid out to them, Wagstaffe said.
Rocky Dhaliwal pleaded no contest yesterday to two felony counts of insurance fraud, and on Nov. 5 will be sentenced to a year in county jail.
Jesse Dhaliwal pleaded no contest yesterday to one misdemeanor count of insurance fraud and will be on probation for two years. Both will have to pay restitution to Delta Dental.
Both are under investigation by the California Dental Board. The Dhaliwals also each have restrictions on their practice from the board mandating that they must have another dentist, who does not work with them, look over their billing statements twice a month.