Doctor with Port Jervis roots shakes the dental industry, advocates for change

At nearly 50, Dr. Mouhab Rizkallah is a husband and father who runs a successful orthodontic practice out of Sommerville, Massachusetts. He also happens to be forging a legacy as a tenacious advocate for the less fortunate, and a steward, willing to stand up to corrupt institutions, and enact change through democratic government policy.

Before Dr. Rizkallah was fighting for children from financially troubled backgrounds to receive proper dental care, he was a kid growing up in Port Jervis, whose family ran a unique business. “First of all, I am an immigrant.” Rizkallah said in an interview. “I came to this country at six months old. And I had two parents who came here with no money in their pocket.” Following the family’s decision to leave their native Egypt and move to the U.S., Rizkallah’s father, a mechanical engineer by trade, found work at Picatinny Arsenal, an American military research and manufacturing facility in New Jersey.

Dr. Rizkallah’s father soon realized that he couldn’t afford the quality education that he wanted for his children on an engineer’s salary. The family moved to Port Jervis, and purchased the Deer Dale Motel, on Route 6. The 20-room motor court lodge was the Rizkallah’s ticket to a better future, or so they thought.

“Well what happened is we got up there and basically had no customers,” Rizkallah explained, adding a deft “nobody came” as an exclamation. The anguish, however, was short-lived, as the growing unhoused crisis in New York at the time led to the state proposing that the Rizkallah family use the motel as a shelter. In exchange, they would receive subsidies and be able to stay in business.

“The Deer Dale basically turned into a homeless shelter, and it was filled.” Rizkallah made the connection between his upbringing, and the work he’s done to help the less fortunate. “Those people were not just staying there for one night, they were there on a long-term basis. I was raised in a homeless shelter environment. That’s what I am, and it’s significant to how I view life. You start to see humanity in different ways when you are not silver spooned.” The doctor added that while he understood he had a different opportunity than the other children in the homeless shelter, he saw them only as his friends. “We played basketball together, every day.”

Rizkallah is a man of deep faith, and it serves as a guide for his life’s work. A Coptic Christian, he married his pastor’s daughter, whom he began dating at age 15. He told The Pike County Courier that he “was designed with purpose.”

One of his more prominent advocacy campaigns was support for “Question 2” in Massachusetts, which he dedicated roughly $3 million dollars toward in an advertisement campaign, and also helped draft.

When asked why he invested so much money in this political campaign, Rizkallah said, “Because it’s my privilege.” Rizkallah explained that dental insurance companies have been operating within when he considers a corrupt system that prevents low-income people from receiving orthodontic care, while those same companies continue to turn huge profits, year after year.

Question 2 says that, by law, 83 cents out of every dollar earned needs to be used on patient care. Rizkallah explained that regular medical insurance companies are required to use 88% of revenue on patient care, or offer rebate checks at the end of the year. However, in the dental field, there was no minimum amount that insurance companies needed to pay into patient care.

As an example of an inequity that would be prevented from the passage of Question 2, Rizkallah noted that one major Massachusetts-based dental company paid $291 million to its parent company the same year that it paid out only $171 million for actual patient care. Question 2 eventually did become law in Massachusetts, which reportedly led to lower co-pays, and premium refunds.

Rizkallah began this charge for change back in 2012 when his state changed the way orthodontic care was approved by insurance to a system he found to be more burdensome for low-income families. Rizkallah filed formal complaints against MassHealth and filed a lawsuit against the state on his patients’ behalf.

Rizkallah continued to learn the law, using his knowledge to hold his industry to a higher standard. As he put it, “I cannot be killed.” Ultimately Dr. Rizkallah became the leading individual for dental healthcare advocacy, and he says he’s got his sights set on his home state of New York next.

For over 10 years now Dr. Mouhab Rizkallah has been simultaneously an orthodontist and an advocate. From his blue collar roots in Orange County, Rizkallah taken on billion-dollar insurance companies, written laws that ensure everyone is entitled to dental care, and spent millions of his own money to generate awareness and enact change. Mo (as his friends call him) would just tell you that it’s his privilege.