For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Contact:
Nazneen Ahmed (919) 716-0060
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein today announced that he and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina reached a $500,000 settlement to resolve allegations that Sharon Raynes Halliday and RAPHA Healthcare Services LLC submitted false claims to the North Carolina Medicaid program, among other allegations.
“We are battling a national opioid crisis,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “When providers write unauthorized prescriptions for controlled substances, they’re wasting taxpayer dollars and jeopardizing public health. I thank the federal government for their partnership in holding these providers accountable.”
From May 15, 2015, through August 29, 2018, Halliday allegedly wrote prescriptions for controlled substances under RAPHA, without having the appropriate authorization or authority to do so. She allegedly used a limited medical school faculty license that had been issued to her.
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 were conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. The settlement resolves the civil lawsuit jointly brought by the United States and the State of North Carolina filed on July 17, 2022, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, captioned United States of America and the State of North Carolina v. Sharon Raynes Halliday and RAPHA Healthcare Services, LLC, No. 22-CV-560.
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 date, the MID has recovered more than $1 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina. 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 $8,535,748 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2023. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,845,248 for FY 2023, is funded by the State of North Carolina.
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