Federal officers on Thursday arrested eight folks they are saying had been concerned in numerous health care fraud schemes totaling $50 million in and round Los Angeles.
Five of the circumstances concerned hospice-care facilities in cities of Glendale, Artesia, Tarzana and Simi Valley in the Los Angeles space that allegedly billed Medicare for sufferers that weren’t terminally ailing and didn’t qualify for hospice providers, the US Attorney’s Office mentioned. One particular person was arrested in Idaho and one other in Los Angeles for allegedly defrauding a West Coast labor union’s health care plans. An further particular person arrested in Los Angeles was accused of forging immigration medical paperwork.
The Trump administration has made California, and the Los Angeles space in specific, a spotlight of its nationwide anti-fraud efforts, alleging the Democratic-led state is failing to crack down on improper spending.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee, known as California the “kingdom of fraud” throughout a information convention asserting the fees.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s workplace mentioned the state has already aggressively cracked down on hospice fraud, noting that he signed a legislation in 2021 to cease offering new hospice licenses over fraud issues. The workplace additionally mentioned the state has revoked greater than 280 hospice licenses in two years and 300 suppliers are beneath investigation.
“Glad the federal government is finally stepping up to do their part,” Newsom wrote in a post on X.
The administration has highlighted fraud across the nation throughout federal advantages packages equivalent to Medicare and Medicaid. President Donald Trump signed an government order in March to create an anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, which met for the primary time final week. Most of the efforts have centered on states run by Democrats, although Republican-led Florida was amongst these requested to share extra data on how they determine, stop and tackle Medicaid fraud.
“We are enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for criminals who defraud American taxpayers,” Essayli mentioned in a press release asserting the California expenses.
Dr. Mehmet Oz mentioned throughout a information convention that federal officers “took out” 221 hospices in the final 10 weeks. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which Oz runs, didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail looking for extra details about what that entailed. CMS certifies hospice supplies to just accept sufferers on government-subsidized health insurance coverage.
“We’re going to review every single hospice in California,” Oz mentioned.
In January, Oz posted a video on social media in entrance of an Armenian bakery in Los Angeles, alleging that roughly $3.5 billion in hospice and residential care fraud has taken place in the town and “quite a bit of it” was run by “the Russian Armenian mafia.” It led to a civil rights grievance by Newsom’s workplace, who mentioned Oz had focused Armenians with “baseless and racially charged allegations.”
Oz’s company additionally introduced that it’s proposing a brand new, publicly accessible hospice scoring system utilizing care metrics to higher determine services that is perhaps illegitimate.
The largest Medicare fraud case introduced Thursday concerned an Artesia-based hospice middle, whose proprietor submitted greater than $9 million in fraudulent hospice claims to Medicare, and was paid greater than $8.5 million on the claims, prosecutors mentioned.
The proprietor paid beneficiaries and entrepreneurs for referring purported hospice sufferers to her firm. One couple mentioned they had been every promised $300 per 30 days to join hospice care regardless that they didn’t want it, and so they acquired pointless gadgets equivalent to dietary shakes, nonprescription nutritional vitamins and wheelchairs, prosecutors mentioned.
Another particular person charged in a brand new hospice fraud case is at present serving federal jail time in Seattle after being convicted in a earlier hospice fraud case in December 2024. Her husband was arrested as a co-defendant Thursday morning.
Authorities additionally introduced expenses in opposition to a Los Angeles nurse that used a hospice middle in Tarzana to submit greater than $3.8 million in claims, of which Medicare paid roughly $3.4 million. She has not but been arrested.
Court dates haven’t been set and it wasn’t instantly clear if any of these arrested had authorized illustration.