A Milwaukee dental practice called Molar Family Dentistry closed several years ago and has been embroiled in a protracted legal dispute over its billing practices.
In March, the case was finally settled, bringing relief to patients who had been pursued for debts they insisted were paid.
Milwaukee resident Randy Luedtke raved about his experience at the practice. He credited dentist Dr. Loc Nguyen with helping him save money on treatment.
“He said, ‘If you pay cash, I can give you a better price—you don’t have to use insurance,’ ” Luedtke recalled. “He was such a nice guy.”
After Dr. Nguyen became incapacitated and died in 2020, Luedtke stopped going to the practice. However, in 2021, he received a debt collection notice demanding approximately $450. “It was very confusing,” Luedtke said.
“I paid in full. Why are they still coming after me?” His bank records confirmed he had written a $450 check as early as 2018.
By 2021, when investigative reporters visited Dr. Mora’s two former offices, both buildings were vacant, one of which had been occupied by a new oral surgeon.
At the time, the clinic’s registered agent, Nancy Wilson, claimed the collection efforts were part of “normal business operations.”
However, attorney Nathan De La Duranti filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to halt the collection practices. “Dr. Mora used to be great at helping patients and working with them,” he said.
“The problem was the bookkeeping on the back end—it was a mess.” According to De La Duranti, the clinic’s owners were constantly trying to collect on bills that had already been paid, were too old to be collected, or had been previously written off.
Eventually, Mora’s Family Dentistry entered receivership, an alternative to bankruptcy, in which a court-appointed receiver liquidates assets to repay creditors.
During the proceedings, the receiver sought court approval to sell patient accounts to a new collection agency. De La Duranti successfully petitioned the court to notify all affected patients—approximately 3,700 in total.
Among them was Waukesha resident Stacey Rhoades, who brought her daughter to the clinic. She insists all bills were fully covered by insurance.
“I was very careful to ensure all charges were processed through insurance before paying,” Rhoades said. She and other patients filed letters with the court challenging the debts.
In March, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge JD Watts sided with the patients and issued an injunction prohibiting “any further collection activity.” With the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, Moral Family Dentistry no longer has legal representation.
Although De La Duranti did not receive any financial compensation from the case, he calls it one of the most rewarding legal battles of his career: “This was about protecting people from unfair taxation, and that’s exactly what we achieved.”