Raleigh drug clinic pays $825K to settle Medicaid fraud case with attorney general
A Raleigh clinic has been ordered to pay $825,000 to settle allegations it billed Medicaid for drug testing, treatment and counseling that was unnecessary or not provided.
Attorney General Josh Stein announced the state Medicaid program settlement with Carter Clinic, P.A., and its owner Myleme Nyerere Ojinga Harrison on Tuesday.
The settlement is not an admission of guilt or a court finding that the clinic is liable for the claims, Stein’s office said in a news release.
The allegations: The state claimed Carter Clinic, a laboratory based in Raleigh, billed Medicaid between Jan. 1, 2020, and May 27, 2024, for “frequent and repetitive” urine drug tests for 15 to 21 different classes of drugs without adjusting the testing level to ensure an accurate result and regardless of the results or the patient’s recovery progress.
Some of the testing was not medically necessary or reasonable, and the results of some tests were not obtained in a reasonable amount of time, the Attorney General’s office claimed. It also accused the clinic of billing Medicaid for peer support services that it failed to document and some of which were deemed unnecessary, the office said.
“Health care providers can’t waste taxpayer dollars to put more in their own pockets,” Stein said in the release. “My office will hold accountable providers when they defraud the Medicaid program and take valuable health care resources.”
About the investigation unit: The state Medicaid Investigation Division program received nearly $8.5 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and another $2.8 million from the state budget this fiscal year, according to the release.
The Attorney General’s Office reported recovering over $1 billion in restitution and penalties in recent years from health care providers, nursing homes and other facilities that abuse Medicaid or patients receiving those benefits.
Federal and state laws allow the state to recover up to three times the money that providers receive from false billings, in addition to civil penalties.
The state hotline for reporting suspected Medicaid fraud or patient abuse is 919-881-2320.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 3:03 PM.
