House Republicans have launched a formal investigation into rampant hospice fraud in California, focusing on Southern California and Los Angeles County. The probe, led by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, comes after investigations by CBS News, independent journalist Nick Shirley and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz identified potentially billions in fraud earlier this month.
The CBS News analysis of Los Angeles County hospice records found that over 700 of nearly 1,800 hospices triggered multiple red flags for fraud as defined by a 2022 state audit. The red flags included excessive billing—$29,000 per patient on average in LA County, more than double the national average of $13,200—and suspicious patterns like multiple providers sharing the same address or staff.
Shirley described the hospice fraud in California as a “Billion dollar fraud crisis.”