Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s MID Data Mining Efforts Lead to $1.7 Million Medicaid Fraud Conviction

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 10, 2026
Contact: comms@ncdoj.gov
919-538-2809

RALEIGH – In a two-year span, a Greensboro healthcare clinic owner submitted and was paid for $1.7 million in urine drug test claims to the Medicaid program. Her claims said that a nurse practitioner and a doctor ordered those tests, but they never did. The Medicaid Investigations Division (MID) found the fraud by flagging irregularities when they reviewed claims data. Now, she’s pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina Dan Bishop announced that Gwendolyn Singleton of Guilford County pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and will be sentenced at a later date. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, supervised release of up to three years, and monetary penalties.

“MID’s data mining efforts are helping us find and shut down healthcare fraud in North Carolina,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “I’m grateful for U.S. Attorney Bishop’s partnership in this case to protect taxpayer dollars.”

Singleton owned and operated Joelle’s Center of Hope, a substance abuse treatment center in Greensboro. Between June 2021 and March 2023, her business submitted more than $1.7 million worth of fraudulent urine drug test claims to Medicaid – and was reimbursed for those claims.

The North Carolina Department of Justice’s Medicaid Investigations Division is a national leader in using data mining to find and prosecute healthcare fraud. MID reviews reams of claims data to find irregular billing for codes, increased billing for uncommon codes, and other anomalies. In this case, MID also worked with the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Compliance and Program Integrity.

The Medicaid Investigations Division investigated the case along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services–Office of Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina is prosecuting the case.

About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)

The Attorney General’s MID investigates fraud and abuse by healthcare companies and providers, as well as patient abuse and neglect in facilities that are funded by Medicaid. MID is North Carolina’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the unit required by federal law to ensure taxpayer dollars in the Medicaid program go to fund patient care, not fraud. MID investigates and prosecutes Medicaid provider fraud and patient abuse. 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 $1.2 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina. MID has won more than $41 million in civil penalties since 2012 that go to fund North Carolina’s public schools.

MID receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $8,561,152 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2026. The remaining 25%, totaling $2,852,714, 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, or report Medicaid provider fraud online here or patient abuse online here.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the county Departments of Social Services are the agencies responsible for Medicaid recipient fraud. You can report Medicaid recipient fraud here.

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