Calgary dentist who submitted $680k in phoney billings should get 3 years in prison: Crown

A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.

Alena Smadych, 55, used to own All About Family Dental, once the highest billing clinic in Canada for root canals.

In an agreed statement of facts filed as part of her guilty plea, Smadych admitted to filing more than $684,000 in falsified billings between 2013 to 2023.

At a sentencing hearing on Friday, Justice Gord Wong heard that Smadych has since made full restitution.

Smadych pleaded guilty to fraud in June for submitting more than $125,000 in phoney billing claims to Sun Life and Blue Cross insurance companies.

Since then, three more insurance companies came forward, and Smadych has now admitted to another $558,000 in fraudulent billings.

Previous conviction

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutor Greg Whiteside told the judge that Smadych has a 2007 conviction for fraud that she received a pardon for in 2018, but that her new crime “effectively brings that conviction back to life for the purpose of her criminal record.”

Whiteside proposed a two- to three-year sentence, while defence lawyer Alain Hepner asked Wong to consider a two-year conditional sentence order, meaning Smadych would be allowed to serve her sentence at home, under conditions.

The investigation began in 2021 after Sun Life identified "strange billing practices" and uncovered practices like direct-billing for repeat root canals and fillings.

Clinic billings would spike at the end of each calendar year. For example, on Dec. 24, 2020, the clinic had $19,000 in claims for 17 patients, with Smadych as the sole billing dentist.

'I am very sorry'

Whiteside noted that investigators discovered business ledgers that showed the real work done on patients and then the “fake work” used to bill insurance companies.

A pre-sentence report completed by forensic psychologist Dr. Patrick Baillie found that Smadych minimized and deflected responsibility for the fraud.

Only in her third interview with Baillie did Smadych accept responsibility “in a more meaningful way,” said Whiteside.

When given the opportunity to address the court, Smadych said she was “ashamed for my profession and for my family.”

“I am very sorry. I am not intending to be in the courtroom again on criminal charges.”

Smadych is no longer working as a dentist, according to the College of Dental Surgeons of Alberta.

Wong will return with his decision in January.