FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 15, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
919-538-2809

RALEIGH - Attorney General Jeff Jackson secured a fraud conviction against Francine Sims Super of Kinston, who pleaded guilty for her role in kickback schemes that defrauded the North Carolina Medicaid program out of more than $15 million. Super was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $15,286,912.91 in restitution to North Carolina Medicaid and $373,810.00 to the Internal Revenue Service.

"Fraudsters who defraud Medicaid of millions of dollars undermine a program designed to give health care to taxpayers," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "We're going to keep working with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to uphold our responsibility to safeguard taxpayer funds."

While working as an office manager at Life Touch LLC, a substance abuse treatment company, Super and others paid more than $1 million in kickbacks to induce patients to show up for services. Over four years, Super and other employees and agents paid patients in the form of weekly gift cards based on the number of days per week the patients showed up to receive services and then created false documents regarding the distribution of these kickbacks to deceive Medicaid auditors.

In addition to the gift card inducements, Super and others received kickbacks from 1st Choice Healthcare Services, LLC, a laboratory company hired to perform drug testing services for Life Touch LLC patients, and Super failed to file a tax return to account for this income.

Super pleaded guilty to a conspiracy involving the following offenses, paying illegal remunerations, receiving illegal remunerations (laboratories), committing health care fraud, making or using materially false writings or documents in connection with a health care matter, and failing to file a tax return.

This investigation arose from the North Carolina Attorney General's Office - Medicaid Investigations Division's data mining efforts to identify and prosecute health care fraud. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office - Medicaid Investigations Division investigated the case.

About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)

The Attorney General's MID investigates fraud and abuse by health care companies and providers, as well as patient abuse and neglect in facilities that are funded by Medicaid. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that helps provide medical care for people with limited income. To date, the MID has recovered more than $1 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina.

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) 2024. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,845,248, is funded by the State of North Carolina. To report Medicaid fraud in North Carolina, call the North Carolina Medicaid Investigations Division at 919-881-2320.

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