The Hospice Fraud

The Numbers That Made Fox Show Up

Los Angeles County has roughly 1,800 licensed hospice providers – about six times the national average for a region its size.

Dr. Oz estimates LA County alone accounts for roughly $3.5 billion in hospice and home care fraud annually. Of those 1,800 hospices, CBS News found over 700 still operating despite triggering multiple fraud red flags.

On a single stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard, investigators found 42 hospice licenses registered within four blocks – many sharing the same multi-tenant office buildings.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, now running Medicare and Medicaid, stood in that neighborhood and put it plainly: "Either there are a lot of people dying here, or you got a fraudulent activity that is so good everyone wants to get in on it."

Read about it...

California Healthcare Fraud

Healthcare fraud in CA goes way beyond Hospice

With the recent revelations about massive hospice fraud in California, it increasingly looks as though the whole corrupt state of California needs to be on hospice care.

It would be nice to think that (cue Gatlin Brothers) “all the fraud…in California…is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills, and so easy to reclaim.”

But over the years, billions and billions have been pilfered and spent long ago by Democrat Party chiselers who grifted it from the taxpayers, who can barely afford to even live in California themselves.

The top state prosecutor in California, Rob Bonta, a Democrat (of course), is trumpeting his prosecution of 14 fraudulent hospice companies --- 21 individual suspects --- for billing MediCal and Medicaid for $267 million in nonexistent services.

This reportedly came after they received a tip from the California Department of Healthcare Services.

Read more...

California's Hospice Fraud

Vance anti-fraud task force charges 15 people in $50M+ California hospice fraud scheme

Federal prosecutors have charged 15 people in Southern California in connection with a wide-ranging scheme that allegedly defrauded Medicare of more than $50 million through sham hospice operations, authorities said April 2.

Eight defendants — including nurses, a chiropractor, and a purported psychologist — were arrested in coordinated raids across the Los Angeles area, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors allege the defendants operated fraudulent hospice companies that enrolled patients who were not terminally ill and billed Medicare for unnecessary or nonexistent services. In some cases, beneficiaries were recruited with monthly cash payments to sign up for hospice care, according to court documents.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a plan to review every hospice in California by the end of the year, along with a nationwide moratorium on certain medical equipment tied to fraudulent billing, according to FOX.

Read more... all thanks to the initital investigation by Nick Shirley.

Hospice Fraud in Los Angeles

FBI arrests eight in alleged $60 million hospice fraud crackdown across Los Angeles County

"Federal agents fanned out across Southern California on Thursday, arresting eight people and executing search warrants in what prosecutors called "Operation Never Say Die", a sprawling takedown targeting an alleged $60 million hospice-related fraud scheme that siphoned taxpayer money through Medicare and Medicaid for patients who, in some cases, were recruited in grocery store parking lots.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the operation during a news conference, saying charges would be brought against 15 individuals across greater Los Angeles County. The alleged schemes ranged from bogus hospice businesses registered to empty lots to convicted felons who were barred by law from running health care operations but did it anyway, using family members as fronts, The Center Square reported.

The arrests mark the latest federal enforcement action in a state that has become ground zero for health care fraud. And the political fallout is already underway, with California Republican lawmakers demanding to know how the schemes flourished for years under Gov. Gavin Newsom's watch while his press office scrambled to take credit for a 2021 moratorium on new hospice licenses."

Read more about the fraud

Thanks to Nick Shirley for his investigative reporting that brought this to light.

Los Angeles businesses deemed high risk for fraud.

Vance’s fraud task force drops hammer: 70 California hospice and home health providers suspended

The Trump administration's new Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance, is moving to suspend dozens of Los Angeles businesses.

On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the task force, announcing that it would advise the president and coordinate efforts to end fraud, waste, and abuse in government benefit programs.

'The American people deserve better than being ripped off by people who hate this country.'

The task force is working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to identify and suspend hospice and home health providers flagged as high risk.

CMS has suspended 70 providers, a source told Blaze News