D.A.: Greed was behind $5M fraud

"GREED" drove Center City dentist Owen Rogal and his daughter Kim Rogal to defraud 15 insurance companies out of nearly $5 million from 2002 to 2011, District Attorney Seth Williams said yesterday.

"This is a case that only happened because of greed," Williams said at a news conference.

"He could have continued making a more comfortable living than probably 98 percent of all Americans as a dentist, but because he saw this as an opportunity, he took it."

Rogal, 71, owner of the Pain Center, on 12th Street near Lombard, and his daughter, his office manager, who lives in Delaware, surrendered yesterday and were charged with 15 counts of insurance fraud, 12 counts of theft by deception and related counts.

Following a 15-month investigation, the grand jury found that the Rogals billed insurance companies $4,800 per-treatment for a high-risk brain procedure, rather than $800 for the radio-frequency surgeries that Pain Center doctors were actually performing on patients, Williams said.

Of the $5 million billed, the Rogals pocketed more than $1 million, Williams said.