State lawmakers are calling for stronger efforts to investigate fraud and abuse in North Carolina’s Medicaid system. A state House committee held a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday on the topic, questioning Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai.
Rep. Grant Campbell, R-Cabarrus, says his staff found several examples of suspicious billing from Medicaid providers. One appeared to be headquartered in an abandoned storefront, and another reported high travel expenses and cash withdrawals.
“Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse isn’t just a fiscal issue, it is a moral one,” Campbell said. “Every dollar misused is a dollar not spent on a child with autism, a senior needing care or a patient waiting for treatment. … We keep talking about how we have no money to look into this, and we had two staffers with Google and an Excel sheet in less than two…
Cyber fraud uses technology as the primary weapon. It is highly scalable and can be conducted from anywhere in the world.
- Phishing/Smishing/Vishing: Using deceptive emails (phishing), text messages (smishing), or phone calls (vishing) to trick victims into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive data.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): A high-value scam where a criminal impersonates a CEO or high-level executive via a “spoofed” email address to trick a staff member into making an urgent, unauthorized wire transfer.