Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced Bethany Medical Center, PA, a medical group with several locations in North Carolina, and its founder, Lenin Peters, MD have paid $8,828,890 to resolve allegations that they violated the North Carolina and Federal False Claims Acts by knowingly billing Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE for medically unnecessary urine drug tests. This settlement resolves allegations that Bethany Medical Center’s founder, Lenin Peters, implemented and enforced the practice at Bethany to order monthly urine drug testing for opioid therapy patients regardless of individual need. The United States and North Carolina further allege that in the period from January 1, 2018, through July 31, 2023, Bethany billed government healthcare programs for urine drug testing for patients prescribed an opioid to treat chronic pain, disregarding individual patient needs for less frequent testing and failing to use the results of the tests to treat the patients.