Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches $4.7 Million Medicaid Fraud Settlement

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Contact: Ben Conroy
(984) 383-9038

RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson reached a $4,711,159 consent judgment with Steven Osbey of Kernersville for fraud against the state’s Medicaid program.

“If health care providers try to game the system to pocket millions in taxpayer dollars, they should know that we’re going to come after them,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “I’m fighting to protect our Medicaid program.”

The North Carolina Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), jointly investigated Reign & Inspirations, LLC, a behavioral health company co-owned and operated by Osbey and Aljihad Shabazz. Reign & Inspirations allegedly billed the North Carolina Medicaid program for physician home visits (“house calls”) that never occurred. Between 2017 and 2020, Reign & Inspirations allegedly submitted false reimbursement claims to the North Carolina Medicaid program for services to Medicaid beneficiaries that were never provided. These “in-home physician visits” each allegedly lasted approximately 60 minutes, and on various dates Reign & Inspirations billed more than 100 such client visits in a day by one doctor. In total, Reign & Inspirations billed more than 30,000 hours of these physician visits during the time frame above.

Previously, Shabazz pleaded guilty for his role in this health care fraud scheme as part of a parallel criminal investigation and prosecution. Shabazz was sentenced to 52 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,711,159.

The Federal and North Carolina False Claims Acts authorize the governments to recover triple the money falsely obtained, plus substantial civil penalties for each false claim. The civil claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only, and there has been no judicial determination or admission of liability.
The parallel criminal/civil investigation of Reign & Inspirations arose from MID’s data mining efforts. The investigation was done by the FBI, IRS-CI, and MID. WDNC USAO Assistant U.S. Attorneys Caroline McLean and Seth Johnson and MID Civil Enforcement Attorney Michael Berger – who also serves as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney – represented the governments in the civil matter.

About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)
The Attorney General’s MID investigates and prosecutes health care providers that defraud the Medicaid program, patient abuse of Medicaid recipients, patient abuse of any patient in facilities that receive Medicaid funding, and misappropriation of any patients’ private funds in nursing homes that receive Medicaid funding.

To date, the MID has recovered more than $1 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina. To report Medicaid fraud or patient abuse in North Carolina, call the MID at 919-881-2320. The MID receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $8,453,116 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2025. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,817,703 for FY 2025, is funded by the State of North Carolina.

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