Ex-dentist gets house arrest for bilking Medicaid

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A former Oklahoma oral surgeon whose filthy clinics led to thousands of patients being tested for HIV and hepatitis has been sentenced to six months' house arrest on a federal money laundering charge.
W. Scott Harrington was sentenced Thursday, three months after pleading guilty to fraudulently billing Medicaid for anesthesia services performed by unlicensed dental assistants.
Harrington's clinics were shuttered in 2013, and state health officials urged about 7,000 of his current and former patients to get tested because of unsanitary conditions at the facilities.
Of the 4,202 patients tested, one had contracted a disease – hepatitis C – at a Harrington clinic. Investigators say it was the nation's first known transmission of hepatitis C between patients in a dental office.
Harrington surrendered his professional license in 2014.