The Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the United States, Mehmet Oz, last week posted a video on social media, detailing the ongoing fraud in hospice care institutions and medical facilities in Los Angeles County.
Currently, investigations are focused on Los Angeles County, with officials stating that state regulatory agencies have failed to effectively curb related fraudulent activities. Investigators believe that the hospice care fraud issue can be traced back to as early as 2010.
“California’s hospice care fraud has become routine and must be stopped immediately,” Oz said in the video, standing in front of a residence in Los Angeles County used as a hospice facility. “The related data is shocking.”
In the video, Oz pointed out that the facility’s owner is suspected of enrolling 6 patients in hospice care plans. However, these patients are not in the terminal stage of their illnesses as alleged. The owner arranged for them to receive services in order to claim nursing fees from federal health insurance.
Oz stated that the owner also provided patients’ personal information to other hospice facilities involved in the scheme, allowing other accomplices to profit from it.
Government investigations show that some hospice care institutions in Los Angeles County may be using medical personnel’s identity information fraudulently. Additionally, the survival time of many so-called “terminally ill patients” (usually expected to have a maximum of 6 months left) significantly exceeds expectations.
Investigators believe that these hospice care institutions are admitting non-terminal patients who stay in the facilities for an “unusually long” time, with a high percentage of patients ultimately being discharged alive.
The financial incentives behind hospice care fraud are substantial. A California audit report indicates that an institution charging current rates to 20 patients could profit $122,000 per month.
In 2023, CMS estimated improper payments in home healthcare claims amounted to $1.2 billion.
Investigators note that the rapid expansion of hospice care institutions in Los Angeles County began in 2010.
In that year, there were a total of 109 hospice facilities in Los Angeles County, serving about 1 million elderly people. By 2021, the number had surged to 1,841 facilities serving approximately 1.4 million people. From January 2019 to August 2021, the state government received 2,600 applications to establish hospice care institutions in Los Angeles County.
A government investigation revealed that within a 22,500 square foot building in Van Nuys, there were over 150 licensed hospice and home healthcare institutions. Investigators believe this quantity far exceeds the building’s actual capacity, and from the outside, there is no indication of so many hospice facilities within.
Oz pointed out that hospice care institutions in Los Angeles County represent about one-third of the total in the United States. Out of 2,836 institutions in California, as many as 1,841 are located in Los Angeles County, accounting for nearly two-thirds of California’s total.
“The reason why this is happening is because the issue has not received sufficient attention from outside forces,” Oz said in the video.
In March 2022, the California State Audit Agency warned that the state government’s oversight of end-of-life care and the medical industry was “weak,” providing opportunities for “widespread fraud and abuse.”
CMS has requested the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to investigate the building in Van Nuys with 150 hospice and home healthcare facilities.
The state audit report shows that when investigators arrived for an inspection in Van Nuys in January 2021, the gates of the hospice care facilities inside the building were locked, and the office phone could not be reached. CDPH had to obtain the owner’s contact information through the landlord, who failed to attend the meetings arranged by the health department for three consecutive days and did not provide any operational records.
The report stated that the owner could not answer questions related to the hospice care facilities and only said “we haven’t decided yet” when asked about their title.
As a result, the state public health department stated that it could not confirm any fraudulent activities and ended the investigation without taking any action.
The state audit agency pointed out that the state health department had noticed potential fraud when issuing permits but still approved the operation permits for these institutions. The audit report also highlighted that since 2015, the health department had not suspended the license of any hospice care institution, revoking only one.
Furthermore, investigations conducted by the state health department into allegations of patient abuse by hospice institutions on average took five months. Investigators believed this process was “approaching” the upper limit of the expected lifespan of terminally ill patients.
The state health department agreed with most of the audit’s findings but indicated that some recommendations might require legislative processes for implementation.
The California Department of Public Health has not responded to requests for comments by the Epoch Times reporter.
Political figures have attempted to address the issue of hospice care fraud through legislation, litigation, and other measures.
On October 4, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law suspending the issuance of new hospice care institution licenses, with this ban extended until January 2027.
In November 2025, the US Department of Justice stated that since 2007, its fraud division had prosecuted over 5,800 defendants involved in medical fraud nationwide. These defendants improperly billed federal health insurance programs and private insurance companies, with the amount totaling over $30 billion.
On January 27, 2026, Newsom announced that the California Department of Public Health had revoked the licenses of over 280 hospice care institutions in the past two years and identified around 300 additional institutions for further evaluation regarding license revocation.
The US Congress is currently investigating this issue. On March 17, a hearing was held in the House of Representatives specifically focusing on the fraud in hospice care institutions across the United States.