D.C. Dentist, Temple Hills Hygienist Convicted in $4 Million Medicaid Fraud

A jury needed more than a week to sort through five years of fabricated dental billing before convicting Steven A. Price, 69, and his hygienist Keidi C. Moore, 39, of Temple Hills, on charges of conspiracy, health care fraud, false statements and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors announced the verdicts on March 4, with the pair facing sentencing before Judge Amit P. Mehta on June 29 and June 30, 2026.

Price operates the Washington Smile Center in Northwest Washington. Moore worked there as a dental hygienist. Together, according to evidence presented at trial, they spent more than five years submitting reimbursement claims to the District of Columbia Medicaid program for crown lengthening procedures and space maintainers that were never actually performed. The scheme ran from January 2017 through March 2022 and caused more than $4 million to be paid out by D.C. Medicaid.

The volume of false claims was striking. Court documents showed that in some cases, individual patients were billed for up to 30 clinical crown-lengthening procedures and more than 20 space maintainers across just a few years, numbers that bear no resemblance to any legitimate course of dental treatment.

"Price and Moore stole $4 million from a program designed to help people in our community," said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. "My office is intent on cutting fraud, waste, and abuse by prosecuting those — like Price and Moore — who steal from government programs to line their own pockets."

The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and highlighted by the HHS Office of Inspector General. Sentencing dates assigned by Judge Mehta fall at the end of June, at which point Price and Moore will learn the consequences of draining a safety-net program of resources meant for low-income patients in the region.