CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Federal and state authorities announced on Monday that they’ve charged more than a dozen people across North and South Carolina in one of the largest healthcare fraud crackdowns in U.S. history.
Monday’s announcement is part of a nationwide sweep involving 324 defendants. The operation targeted doctors, nurses, business owners, and others accused of defrauding Medicaid, Medicare, and other public health programs, federal and state officials said.
Gift cards and bogus labs
In Charlotte, Crystal Jackson, a former licensed addiction specialist, is accused of submitting $1.9 million in fake claims for drug testing and therapy through her company, Jackson Consulting Services. Of that, authorities said $1.6 million was paid out by NC Medicaid.
In the Eastern District of North Carolina, three people tied to a substance abuse treatment company called Life Touch, LLC – Kimberly Sims, Francine Super, and Keke Johnson – were charged with paying patients with gift cards to keep them coming back for services. This allegedly led to over $25 million in Medicaid payments. Prosecutors said staff also got kickbacks from a lab company and misled auditors…