Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced the sentencing of the final of five defendants involved in a scheme that defrauded the North Carolina Medicaid program of over $12.7 million. In total, the defendants must repay over $2.5 million to the IRS and over $15 million to Medicaid. On March 2, 2026, Kimberly Sims was sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,845,276.95 in restitution to Medicaid and $207,383 to the IRS. She pleaded guilty to a conspiracy which included paying illegal remunerations, committing healthcare fraud and making and using materially false documents, as well as filing a false tax return.
From 2018 to 2023, Keke Johnson and Francine Super, who worked for Life Touch, paid more than $1 million in kickbacks to Medicaid patients to incentivize them to show up for substance abuse and lab services. Johnson then billed those services to the North Carolina Medicaid program on behalf of Life Touch and 1st Choice Healthcare, a urine drug screening company, resulting in more than $12.7 million in fraudulent claims. The owner of 1st Choice Healthcare and Super’s daughter, Kimberly Sims, would then pay Medicaid kickbacks to the Life Touch employees for the lab services they ordered. Brandon Sims, the owner of Life Touch, received millions in proceeds from the operation, but failed to file or pay taxes on them.