A Burlington nursing home has agreed to pay nearly $100,000 to the state of North Carolina after officials say it hired a woman with no nursing license, no training, and no healthcare experience, then let her work 54 shifts caring for residents while billing Medicaid for her services. White Oak Manor of Burlington will pay $98,474 to resolve the civil allegations, including $49,237 that goes directly back to the Medicaid program as restitution.
The settlement was announced by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, with the news amplified in a retweet from Governor Josh Stein
. According to the
North Carolina Department of Justice
, the case centers on White Oak Manor's hiring of Nieasha Jones, who worked as a nurse at the facility for three months despite lacking a nursing license, proper training, or any relevant healthcare background.
During that stretch, Jones logged 54 shifts providing care to residents at the 160-bed facility, the state says. White Oak Manor of Burlington is a for-profit skilled nursing facility on Baldwin Road, according to information listed on Medicare.gov. It is operated by White Oak Management, Inc., a company that runs 15 senior living and nursing facilities spread across North Carolina and South Carolina.
How Regulators Caught the Unlicensed Hire
The improper staffing arrangement came to light after the Division of Health Service Regulation, a branch of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, flagged the case and referred it to the Attorney General's Medicaid Investigations Division.
NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai said the department works closely with the Attorney General's Office to catch unqualified personnel and make sure taxpayer resources go toward safe care, per the state justice department's announcement. The $98,474 agreement resolves only civil allegations; there has been no judicial determination of guilt and no formal admission of liability by White Oak Manor.
A Small Settlement in a Much Larger Enforcement Push
Compared to some of the state's headline-grabbing fraud cases, $98,474 is a modest figure. But it fits into a broader pattern of enforcement: North Carolina's Medicaid Investigations Division recovered $296,014,563 in fraudulent or improper payments between 2019 and 2025, ranking the state eighth nationally in total Medicaid fraud recoveries, Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of a $1.6 million fraud sentencing out of Charlotte.
The stakes for North Carolina are considerable. Medicaid provides health coverage to more than 3 million residents — roughly one in four North Carolinians — and funds care for 67% of all nursing home residents statewide, according to that same Hoodline report. That coverage makes staffing credentials at licensed facilities a financial and safety concern for public coverage.
What the Law Allows
State law gives regulators real teeth in these cases. Under the North Carolina False Claims Act, submitting false healthcare claims carries mandatory civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, plus treble damages, according to the Miller Law Group. The White Oak Manor settlement concerns alleged Medicaid billing.
It remains unclear whether Nieasha Jones will face separate criminal charges for practicing nursing without a license, or whether DHHS has imposed additional licensure penalties or staffing citations against the facility itself. The civil settlement announced by the Attorney General's office addresses only the Medicaid billing claims, leaving those questions unresolved for now.
