House Oversight Investigating California Hospice Fraud, Claims Newsom Knew for Years
“Despite these red flags, it appears California has enabled hospice providers to defraud the American taxpayer and exploit vulnerable patients.”
Republican House Oversight Committee members announced that the committee had launched an investigation into claims of hospice fraud in California.
“Despite clear red flags, it appears California leaders have enabled hospice providers to DEFRAUD hardworking American taxpayers,” Chairman James Comer wrote on X. “The House Oversight Committee is moving to protect taxpayer funds from waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The outrage started in January when Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said California owed over $1 billion in Medicaid funds improperly used for health care for illegal aliens.
Then Leslie wrote about the hospice fraud last week, citing investigations from CBS News and Nick Shirley.
In his 40-minute video, Shirley noted that the fraud in “Minnesota was big, but California is even bigger.”
Shirley discovered that two facilities charged $6,000 per person.
Another hospice received $1.3 million. Shirley found the location empty. No employees. No equipment. No furniture.
In all, Shirley claimed he uncovered $170 million in fraud.
CBS News revealed that 700 of the 1,800 hospices in Los Angeles County “trigger multiple red flags for fraud as defined by the state.”
Oversight Republicans already discovered Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration knew about the fraud for years:
Your administration has been aware of credible reports of hospice fraud for at least four years. According to a March 29, 2022 report from the California State Auditor, Los Angeles County, the state’s most populous county, has experienced a 1,500 percent increase in registered hospice providers since 2010.5 This increase, which totals more than 2,800 providers in the State, is more than six times the national average of hospice agencies relative to Los Angeles County’s senior population. This is greater than the number of hospice providers in 36 states combined and 33 times greater than the entire state of Florida. California’s auditors estimate that Los Angeles County hospice providers overbilled Medicare by at least $105 million in a single year. Nationwide, hospice providers bill Medicare an average of $13,200 per patient annually. Los Angeles County is billing Medicare about $29,000 per patient and has the highest concentration of hospice providers in the country with 500 located within a 3 mile radius alone. Some providers billed as much as $74,000 per patient. Eighteen Los Angeles County hospice providers all using a single doctor’s Medicare provider number reportedly billed Medicare for 76,000 claims totaling nearly $600 million between 2021 and 2024, including nearly $210 million in 2024 alone. More than 100 hospice and home healthcare agencies are registered to a single address in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. Recently, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Director, Mehmet Oz, estimated that Los Angeles County alone represents $3.5 billion of hospice fraud, and that 18 percent of all hospice billing in the United States comes from Los Angeles County. Last year, California Attorney General Rob Bonta called hospice fraud in California, specifically in Los Angeles County, “an epidemic.”
The March 2022 audit report highlighted several red flags and key warning signs of fraud: many providers are listed at the same address; very low patient counts compared with the rest of the State; patients listed as terminally ill were later discharged alive; excessive billing for services that may not have been provided; and staff were shared across multiple hospice providers.
“Despite these red flags, it appears California has enabled hospice providers to defraud the American taxpayer and exploit vulnerable patients,” added the Republicans.
The auditor also raised the alarm that California had a 1,500% increase in hospices since 2010.
The number worried the auditor because California didn’t need more hospice agencies.
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Comments
Newscum is a fraud as well.
Hang this around his neck. I want to see him at his next job frothing milk at Starbucks.
Of course he knew about the fraud, just like Tampon Tim in Minnesota. Follow the money… how much of it wound back up in Dim apparatus and/or NGO’s pushing the Dim agenda?
Nick Shirley should get much of the credit for revealing this, i.e. doing the job our state media refuses to do.
Noisome will be found to be in the middle of all of it. Can you imagine this feckless tool even looking at the WH?
Unfortunately, half of our population is just fine with a smarmy feckless fraud such as Newsom running for president. A constitutional republic can only function with an educated and moral electorate. We no longer have that ingredient.
I agree, much of that half is deliberately uninformed by a state media that has simply looked the other way (being kind here) for decades, if not longer.
And this state run media continues to whitewash (am I still allowed to use this term?) this story as it unfolds.
I bet proper recording could get that number down to the mindless, lockstep 25% in no time.
Thanks again, Nick Shirley and PRESIDENT Trump. None of these revelations would have happened without them!
Oh noes. No one ever expects the CoNgReSSiOnAL iNvESTiGaTiOn!
And not just any investigation, but one by the oversight committee created to do oversight for things that require oversighting so the oversight can insure that things are properly oversighted, so criminals can’t rob the US tax payers of billions and billions of dollars if there was no oversight committee to oversight things.
All I want know is will any politico who aided and abetted, conspired, colluded, or was an accessory to create a criminal enviroment that enabled criminals to steal billions and billions of $$$ from the US tax payers go to prison?
of course not ….
dont be silly …
I wonder if newsome managed
to profit from it in some way
and not report it as inncome..
if that can be shown then
maybe just maybe something can
be done about it .. I doubt it
cuz some “judge” will decide that
it is illegal to charge a democrat
with doing anything illegal …
He profits either way, by kickbacks or the indirect benefit from injections of fed money into his failed state.
Great. Another hyperventilating hearing that leads to absolutely nothing.
The issue to me is the apparent lack of basic fraud detection on the Federal side for all this. A single physician billing tens of millions and a cluster of ‘hospice’ providers into an impossibly small area should be setting off automatic, proactive anti fraud measures. We have about 2 million civilian Federal employees and not one could be directed to make an in person visit like Nick Shirley did? That’s not a commitment to good stewardship. Go to these places, ask questions, poke.around and if it looks wrong or they won’t answer go get a warrant.
Did Democrats boycott the hearing or were they there to provide cover for their money laundering allies in Ca.?
Wake me up when there is an INDICTMENT.
I’ll make the popcorn when there is a CONVICTION.
Until then, it’s all just theatrics to animate the various bases.
How’s that investigation/prosecution of Walz going? Newsom will get the same…after he finishes running for President.
The essence of this travesty is that a large percentage of voters and the progressive media will choose to ignore corruption if the politicians promise to support their ideological preferences. Once that faction acquires power they criminalize opposition, and enforce that rigorously. Economic uncertainty and class envy accelerate this process, which may have already advanced here beyond the point of no return.
better hurry up and nail these leftists
dems are winning all over the place and we have laws that protect the criminals
maga
OK, Republican House Oversight Committee members, what are you going to do about it?!?!?