A Charlotte woman has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for running a years-long scheme that billed the North Carolina Medicaid program for therapy sessions and drug tests that never happened, some of them supposedly performed on patients who were already dead or sitting in jail. Crystal Sherrell Jackson, 40, owned and operated Jackson Consulting and Services, LLC, a company registered with NC Medicaid as a mental health agency, clinical laboratory and consulting firm.
Jackson was licensed as a clinical addiction specialist-associate, and both she and her company were formally enrolled as Medicaid providers, according to the U.S. Attorney WDNC. Between 2020 and 2024, prosecutors say she submitted more than $1.9 million in fraudulent claims to NC Medicaid for unperformed psychotherapy and urine drug testing, ultimately collecting over $1.6 million — $1,623,983.08 — that a federal judge has now ordered her to repay in restitution.
Charlotte woman sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for defrauding the North Carolina Medicaid Program.
— U.S. Attorney WDNC (@USAO_WDNC) August 27, 2026
w/ @FBICharlotte @NCAGO @IRS_CI
Read more at: https://t.co/8gUM17Gl6Q pic.twitter.com/5cJsjvS18C
Stolen Identities, Including From the Dead and Incarcerated
To pull off the sham billing, Jackson acquired and misused personal identifying information belonging to eligible Medicaid beneficiaries, including their names, dates of birth and Medicaid numbers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. More than a dozen of those individuals were incarcerated or deceased at the time the purported services supposedly occurred.
Russ Ferguson, United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a statement that the case reflects damage far beyond the dollar figure. “Medicaid fraud is a crime on all of us – it steals taxpayer money, makes healthcare more expensive, and compromises the integrity of our entire healthcare system,” Ferguson said. “In addition, it is a nightmare for those whose identities are stolen. We are grateful for the teamwork essential to combatting this widespread fraud.”
The case was investigated with the involvement of FBI Charlotte, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office. Jackson was initially charged by federal information in June 2025 as part of a nationwide healthcare fraud enforcement action coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Part of a Broader Crackdown on Behavioral Health Billing
Jackson's case is one of several recent prosecutions targeting behavioral health and clinical lab billing fraud across western North Carolina. Hoodline previously reported on a Charlotte man charged in a $735K scheme and on clinic owners outside Charlotte accused in a $12 million Medicaid scam. In September 2023, a separate Charlotte business owner was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison for defrauding NC Medicaid of more than $11 million through a urine toxicology laboratory and behavioral health scam, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
State officials say enforcement has been paying off. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson reported in April that the state's Medicaid Investigations Division recovered $296,014,563 between 2019 and 2025, ranking 8th nationwide in total Medicaid fraud recoveries, per the North Carolina Department of Justice. The division reportedly returns roughly $6.28 for every federal dollar spent on investigations.
Why the System Remains a Target
NC Medicaid provides health coverage for more than 3 million state residents — roughly 1 in 4 North Carolinians — including 50% of all births in the state and 67% of nursing home residents as of fiscal year 2025, according to the NC Department of Health and Human Services. That scale makes the program both essential and, as cases like Jackson's show, vulnerable to exploitation before backend data analytics catch outlier billing patterns. The state maintains an eligibility payment error rate of approximately 0.46 percent, among the lowest in the country, per NC DHHS testimony.
Federal health care fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1347 carries a statutory maximum of up to 10 years in prison per count, along with mandatory victim restitution, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Beyond prison time, individuals convicted of federal Medicaid fraud face mandatory administrative exclusion from participating in any federal health care program, a bar enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General that permanently cuts off access to federal health funds.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
