Dr. Yun Sup Kim, 49, of St. Louis, is going to prison for ripping off Illinois Medicaid for more than $671,000 through a years-long scheme of fake dental work and inflated bills. The metro area dentist pleaded guilty to three counts of health care fraud and was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison during a videoconference hearing in Benton, Illinois.
Kim’s scam unfolded between August 2014 and December 2017, when he routinely billed Medicaid for cavity fillings and surgical tooth extractions he never performed. Investigators found he claimed to have done eight or more fillings in a single day on over 1,300 patients—procedures so frequent and extensive they defied medical credibility. In court, Kim admitted he did not numb, drill, or fill any of those teeth.
Even more brazen, Kim systematically upgraded routine tooth pulls to surgical extractions—procedures that cost significantly more—in order to collect bigger payouts from Medicaid. He also falsified dates of service to bypass program rules on dental sealants, manipulating the system with cold precision. The fraud came to light during a 2015 regulatory audit that flagged his outlier billing patterns.
As part of his February guilty plea, Kim agreed in April to a consent decree revoking his license to practice dentistry in Illinois. He has already paid $671,845.20 in restitution to Illinois Medicaid and Medicaid managed care organizations—a sum that does little to erase the damage done to vulnerable patients who received substandard or nonexistent care.
U.S. District Judge Staci M. Yandle acknowledged the repayment but stressed that incarceration was necessary to deter others in the medical field. She pointedly noted that many of Kim’s low-income, Medicaid-eligible patients suffered physical harm due to his neglect and that Kim showed no remorse for his actions—only a calculated effort to avoid punishment.
Kim was ordered to self-surrender on November 13, 2020, and will serve one year of supervised release following his prison term. The case was investigated by the Illinois State Police Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, and the FBI, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan D. Stump.
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Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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