Owner of Houston Floss Family Dental Care to spend 10 years in prison for $6 million Medicaid fraud scheme

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The owner of a Houston-area dental clinic will spend time in prison for orchestrating a $6 million Medicaid fraud scheme. He is also accused of allowing his son to perform services without a license.

René Gaviola, 68, pleaded guilty Jan. 26 to the alleged scheme. Federal prosecutors said Gaviola operated Floss Family Dental Care from 2018 until April 2021.

During this time, he submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid for pediatric dental services – such as cavity fillings that were never performed.

Gaviola allegedly illegally employed his son, who was not a licensed dentist, to provide services to children insured by Medicaid and sometimes used Floss without a licensed dentist present. Floss then billed Medicaid for the services.

According to a release from the U.S. District Judge’s Office, Gaviola also admitted to laundering Medicaid money from the clinic’s bank account into his personal account in several transactions exceeding $100,000.

Gaviola was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In addition, a judge ordered him to pay $4,908,957.89 in restitution to Medicaid and a personal amount of $2,996,092.

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