Department of Justice Applies More Than Five Million Dollars from Forfeited Property to Reimburse Fraud Loss of the North Carolina Medicaid Program

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Department of Justice recently secured $5,245,640.02 in restitution to the North Carolina Medicaid system, which provides access to health care services for millions of North Carolina, United States Attorney Sandra Hairston announced today. The restitution resulted from a 2018 case involving a Greensboro medical transportation provider convicted of defrauding Medicaid.

According to court records, the Greensboro-based medical transport company Gate City Transportation, Inc., misrepresented their services on reimbursement applications from November 2010 until February 2015, stealing over five million dollars from the Medicaid program. The investigation revealed that Gate City Transportation deliberately submitted false claims in order to receive higher reimbursements than were appropriate by coding their services as if they were an ambulance provider despite not being authorized to do so.

Gate City Transportation pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud in September 2018, and was sentenced on August 15, 2019, and ordered to pay restitution. A total of $5,553,486.62 will be paid to the victim which includes principal of $5,245,640.02 plus interest of $307,846.60.  The funds were obtained through seizure and forfeiture of Gate City Transportation assets.

“Securing this restitution means that millions across the state of North Carolina will be able to get the healthcare they need,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston. “I am very happy that we are able to return the money that was stolen and thankful to the agencies that worked so hard to secure justice in this case.”

The 2018 criminal case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Unit.

###