A Greensboro woman has pleaded guilty in a Medicaid fraud case involving more than $1.7 million in urine drug testing claims.
Gwendolyn Singleton, 55, owned and operated Joelle’s Center of Hope, a Greensboro business that claimed to provide substance abuse treatment services, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Federal prosecutors said the business billed North Carolina Medicaid for urine drug tests that were never performed.
The claims listed a nurse practitioner and a doctor as ordering providers. Both providers later said they never ordered urine drug tests for Joelle’s Center of Hope.
The Claims Ran From 2021 to 2023
According to court documents, Joelle’s Center of Hope submitted approximately $1,735,865 in fraudulent urine drug testing claims directly to North Carolina Medicaid.
The claims were submitted between June 2021 and March 2023.
The scheme did not depend only on billing for a high volume of tests. Prosecutors said the claims also listed medical providers as ordering the tests, creating the appearance that the services were connected to legitimate patient care.
Prosecutors said the tests were not performed, and the providers whose names appeared on the claims denied authorizing them. They did not identify individual patients in the public release or say how many separate claims were submitted.
The confirmed loss figure is tied to the reimbursement paid to the business, not just the amount billed.
Singleton Pleaded Guilty to Health Care Fraud
Singleton pleaded guilty on July 9 to health care fraud. Her sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. in Winston-Salem before U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder.
At sentencing, she faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and monetary penalties.
The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office Medicaid Investigations Division, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley Waid and Eric Iverson and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Spillman are prosecuting the case.
Patients Should Check Whether Billed Tests Actually Happened
Urine drug testing, lab work, therapy visits, medical equipment, and other routine health care claims can be billed under a patient’s name, a clinic’s account, or a provider’s credentials without the patient immediately knowing.
Patients and caregivers can review Medicaid, Medicare, insurer statements, patient portals, and explanation-of-benefits notices for services that were never received, dates that do not match appointments, providers they do not recognize, duplicate charges, or tests that were never discussed.
Providers whose names appear on claims they did not order should preserve billing records, patient lists, claim numbers, dates of service, provider-identification details, and any communication showing they did not authorize the services.
Suspected Medicaid fraud in North Carolina can be reported to the North Carolina Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Division. Suspected Medicare or federal health care fraud can also be reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General at oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud.