For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Contact: Nazneen Ahmed
919-716-0060
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein today reached a $61,000 settlement with Patrick Shawn Murphy, a behavioral health provider in Burlington, to resolve allegations that Murphy submitted false claims to the North Carolina Medicaid program. The settlement funds will be returned to the program.
“I’m pleased that my office’s Medicaid Investigations Division has been able to win back this taxpayer money,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “My office will continue to hold accountable health care providers who defraud the Medicaid program.”
From May 1, 2017, through February 29, 2020, Murphy allegedly fraudulently billed Medicaid for 1,506 psychotherapy and psychiatric diagnostic evaluation claims, failing to maintain documentation that the services were provided or medically necessary.
The civil claims resolved by settlement here are allegations only and 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.
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 $6,106,236 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2022. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,035,412 for FY 2022, is funded by the State of North Carolina.
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