California officers introduced Thursday the dismantling of a “massive hospice fraud scheme” they are saying defrauded the state of greater than $267 million in funding meant to offer end-of-life care to ailing residents.
More than 20 individuals have been charged within the takedown – dubbed “Operation Skip Trace” – and 5 have been arrested for his or her alleged involvement in a sprawling community of shell firms that schemed, stole and laundered over 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} from the state, officers mentioned at a information convention in Los Angeles Thursday.
“Let this be a lesson to anyone targeting Medi-Cal and hospice care in California – we are on the case, and we’re coming for you,” Rob Bonta, the state’s legal professional common, mentioned. Medi-Cal is the state’s Medicaid well being care program.
“California has a no-tolerance policy for fraud.”
It comes on the heels of federal officers’ announcement final week that eight individuals within the Los Angeles space had been arrested in a $50 million hospice fraud operation.
President Donald Trump has made combatting fraud a central half of his second time period, with a specific focus on rooting out the issue in Democrat-led states, resembling Minnesota and California.
Administration officers sparred with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s workplace and accused the state of failing to handle rampant well being care fraud in Southern California.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee, known as California the “kingdom of fraud” at a information convention saying these arrests final week. Essayli mentioned the federal authorities is “providing the oversight that has been missing from California for a very long time.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who serves because the Health and Human Services administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, additionally touted his company’s efforts to root out fraud in Minnesota and different states below Trump’s course, however famous “hospice in Southern California is an entire(ly) different level of fraud.”
Bonta rejected these claims Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of politicizing the widespread problem of hospice and medical fraud “in their attempt to resurrect Trump’s plummeting approval rating.”
“While health care fraud might be President Trump’s shiny new political talking point, California DOJ has been going after health care fraud since 1979,” the legal professional common mentioned. “Trump is late to the party.”
In the final decade, the California Department of Justice’s division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse has recovered greater than $1.5 billion from civil and prison Medi-Cal fraud instances, Bonta mentioned.
“This is our area of expertise; it’s our bread and butter. It’s what we do, and we will continue to do it,” he mentioned.
State officers launched “Operation Skip Trace” final spring after receiving a tip regarding alleged hospice fraud at 14 firms, Bonta mentioned.
The investigation uncovered a community of shell firms that had been buying private figuring out info on the darkish net and enrolling out-of-state residents – who had been fully wholesome and unaware of the scheme – into California’s hospice care system. The firms would then allegedly invoice the state for companies that had been by no means offered and launder the cash by way of a “complex web” of shell firms,” Bonta mentioned.
“This was a brazen, calculated criminal scheme that exploited the Medi-Cal system, stole from the state of California and Medicaid, and prevented the services and care from going to sick individuals who actually need it,” Bonta mentioned.
If discovered responsible, he added, these charged may resist 16 years in jail.