LA’s shameful hospice fraud crisis laid bare — and the tens of millions of your cash going down the drainhttps://nypost.com/2026/03/01/us-news/multimillion-dollar-fraud-probe-targets-california-hospice-agencies/A network of hundreds of hospices are under investigation for allegedly ripping tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers in Los Angeles Country and across California.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now actively cutting off payments to suspicious operations across Los Angeles, which is home to almost half of America’s end-of-life care providers.
A hospice industry insider provided the California Post with data detailing hundreds of suspicious hospices and home agencies across the state, including addresses where multiple agencies are listed at the same location.
A Post investigation found the addresses include empty storefronts, an auto parts shop and other offices that are unoccupied, some for years. Others don’t appear to exist at all.
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The Post contacted the California Department of Public Health about the hospice and home health agencies in this article, including whether those locations have been inspected or are under review for potential fraud or violations.
The department confirmed all companies identified by the California Post were still licensed.
However, once they are inspected and receive certification, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services takes over inspections, they said.
”The CDPH may only conduct federal onsite investigations with approval by CMS.”
This has me totally perplexed. Some of my family members work in medical records with a very real hospice organization that has been doing their thing since the Reagan years. Medicare regs are very exacting. Every "T" has to be crossed with straight lines, and every "I" dotted with a precise .7 mm dot. If, as occasionally happens, a patient is decertified - for Medicare-specified cause and within Medicare specified timing - and the patient or patient's family appeals, it sets off a process in which months of records have to be produced, and Medicare examines.
I'm not complaining, just pointing out that some hugemongous fraud and neglect happened on the gooberment side - Federal and state - for this to happen. It looks like the loosening of oversight due to Covid and then during the LIEden MalAdministration created a huge window of opportunity through which flocks of fraudsters flew. It also means that the fraudsters had a massive effort to generate the paperwork (e.g. nurse and aide visit reports) necessary to keep the $$$$ flowing.
Given the regulocratic context, this kind of fraud has probably happened in other states, albeit on a lesser scale. Timmyville and PutzkerTown should get some attention along these lines.
