Dr. Juan D. Villarreal of Harlingen Family Dentistry and founder of Texas Dentists for Medicaid Reform has completed the writing of a book about his personal experience with Texas Medicaid and its attempt to falsely accuse Texas dentists of healthcare fraud over dental and orthodontic treatment given to thousands of indigent children from 2007 to 2012.
Book documents personal journey
“Truth Decay – How I Learned That Americans Need to Fight Back When Wronged By Their Government” documents Dr. Villarreal’s personal journey in fighting back against these horrendous allegations and the toll it took on his practice and life, and what he learned from it.
Decided to fight back when falsely accused
Dr. Villarreal has been a Medicaid provider since 1983 when he opened his practice in Harlingen, one of the first Hispanic dentists to do so, and built it into one of the largest single office practices in the country. Rather than succumb to the financial stress of large state-imposed payment holds in 2011 which closed and/or bankrupted other dental providers, he instead used the situation as a challenge to fight back and change the system which was essentially corrupt.
He writes, “The problem is that in our country there are now government agencies writing regulations for themselves that have the force of law and can defy our constitutional guarantees. Worse, this practice can lead to rogue bureaucrats who, for their own glory and power, use these self-written regulations to harm citizens and taxpayers and bring financial ruin with little to no consequences for themselves.
“All of a sudden there is no due process. There is no innocent until proven guilty. There is no right to a speedy trial by a jury of one’s peers.
“There is only a shakedown. A demand for a large amount of money to stop the harassment so they will go away. Guilt, innocence or law has nothing to do with it. The implicit threat is to comply or go bankrupt.”
Encourages others to do the same for a better country
The purpose of the book is to show that Americans need to take action, not cower back in fear, when they are wronged by their government and that the government can change for the better because of their activities.
When confronted by continuing false allegations of wrongdoing by bureaucrats in the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and its Office of Inspector General after being found innocent by a state administrative court, he embarked on a campaign to inform state legislators what was really going on in those agencies. This helped lead to massive changes in HHSC-OIG then under Sunset Review. He also worked with others to get due process rights for all Medicaid providers successfully enacted.
The book is expected to be available in late August. If you would like to obtain a copy, please fill out the short form below and you will be notified when available.