Attorney General Josh Stein announces $300,000 "Operation You’ve Got Nerve" settlement
RALEIGH - Attorney General Josh Stein today announced that he reached a $300,000 settlement to resolve allegations that Dr. Benjamin C. Udoh and Hanora Medical Center of Fayetteville, North Carolina, submitted false claims to Medicaid and Medicare. Today’s settlement is part of Operation You’ve Got Nerve, an ongoing effort by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Division (MID) to find and take action against providers billing Medicaid fraudulently for autonomic nervous system (ANS) testing.
“This effort to stop health care providers who are cheating the Medicaid program by billing for unnecessary tests have won back more than $350,000 for taxpayers,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “My office will continue to hold accountable providers when they commit fraud and waste resources.”
Between January 2016 and May 2020, the defendants allegedly submitted false or fraudulent claims for ANS testing when the testing services were not medically necessary. As a result, they were reimbursed for funds that they were not entitled to. The defendants have also entered into an integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
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 United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office.
This is the second settlement Attorney General Stein has won as part of Operation You’ve Got Nerve – he also won $60,000 in a previous settlement.
About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)
The Attorney General’s MID investigates and prosecutes health care providers that defraud the Medicaid program, patient abuse of Medicaid recipients, patient abuse of any patient in facilities that receive Medicaid funding, and misappropriation of any patients’ private funds in nursing homes that receive Medicaid funding. To report Medicaid fraud or patient abuse in North Carolina, call the MID at 919-881-2320.
The MID receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $6,160,252 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2020. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,053,414 for FY 2020, is funded by the State of North Carolina.
