TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A former Oklahoma oral surgeon whose filthy clinics led to thousands of patients being tested for HIV and hepatitis was sentenced Thursday to six months’ house arrest for fraudulently billing Medicaid for anesthesia services that were performed by unlicensed dental assistants.
W. Scott Harrington pleaded guilty in April to money laundering and agreed to pay nearly $30,000 in restitution under an agreement with federal prosecutors. He was also sentenced Thursday to two years’ probation and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine within a month. He must begin his house arrest within three days.
Harrington’s two Tulsa-area clinics were shuttered in 2013. State health officials urged about 7,000 of his current and former patients to get tested for diseases because of unsanitary conditions that included rusty equipment and reused needles.
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, 67, surrendered his professional license in 2014 after more than 35 years in practice.