CBS Probe Finds Widespread Hospice Fraud in LA County

A CBS News investigation has uncovered widespread indicators of fraud among more than 700 hospice providers in Los Angeles County, California, where operators appear to have exploited Medicare by enrolling healthy individuals in end-of-life care programs without providing services, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in overbilling.

The probe, which analyzed licensing records and Medicare billing data for all approximately 1,800 licensed hospices in the county, identified multiple red flags consistent with state-defined fraud indicators. These include clusters of providers sharing the same addresses, with 89 agencies registered to a single building in Van Nuys and nearly 500 operating within a three-mile stretch along Van Nuys Boulevard. Investigators visiting these sites often found empty offices, accumulated mail and unresponsive phone lines, suggesting many were little more than paper operations.

The scheme typically involves using stolen Medicare numbers to enroll non-terminal patients, such as seniors not facing imminent death, and assigning them fabricated diagnoses to justify billing. On average, these providers charged Medicare about $29,000 per patient, more...