Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched a formal investigation into what they’re calling “rampant taxpayer fraud” in California’s hospice industry, demanding records from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and raising questions about billions in Medicare losses.
The committee sent a letter to Newsom accusing his administration of failing to stop hospice providers from overbilling Medicare and fraudulently enrolling patients who never consented to hospice care, and in some cases didn’t even know they were enrolled.
“The Committee is concerned your administration does not have sufficient internal controls to prevent and detect fraud and is not conducting proper oversight of these hospice programs,” the letter states. “As a result, Americans across the country are paying for California’s rampant hospice fraud and vulnerable patients are being exploited.”
The probe follows extensive reporting on what federal investigators have described as a network of fraudulent hospice operations concentrated in Southern California, particularly the Los Angeles area. Fake companies were set up to bill Medicare using real physicians’ provider numbers, often without those doctors’ knowledge. In some cases, patients listed as receiving hospice care were already dead.
Investigative journalist Nick Shirley recently uncovered $170 million in alleged fraud in California and said the state’s version of Medicaid, called Medi-Cal, has “more than doubled” since 2022, despite the state’s population not growing exponentially, he explained.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) chairs the oversight committee and signed the letter along with other Republican members. No Democrats signed on.
Investigators have previously estimated losses in the billions of dollars. Los Angeles alone has been described as a fraud epicenter, with dozens of providers operating out of single buildings and billing the federal government for services never rendered.
