Attorney General Josh Stein announced a $825,000 settlement to resolve allegations that Carter Clinic, PA, and its owner, Myleme Nyerere Ojinga Harrison, MD submitted false claims to the North Carolina Medicaid program. The Carter Clinic is a clinical laboratory headquartered in Raleigh that billed Medicaid for urine drug testing, outpatient substance use disorder treatment, and counseling and peer support services. Between January 1, 2020, and May 27, 2024, Carter allegedly ordered frequent and repetitive definitive urine drug tests for patients for at least 15 to 21 classes of drugs without adjusting the level of testing performed, and irrespective of the results or the patient’s treatment progression. The nature and level of this testing was allegedly not medically necessary or reasonable.
Carter also allegedly failed to perform and/or obtain test results within a reasonable time and failed to document the peer support services it billed to Medicaid, some of which the state contends were unnecessary. The Federal and North Carolina False Claims Acts authorize the governments to recover triple the money falsely obtained, plus substantial civil penalties for each false claim submitted. It should be noted that the civil claims resolved by settlement here are allegations only, and that there has been no judicial determination or admission of liability. The investigation and prosecution of this case was conducted by the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office as part of its continuing efforts to identify and prosecute healthcare fraud.
