Overview
- CBS reviewed roughly 1,800 licensed hospices in Los Angeles County and found more than 700 triggered multiple state-defined red flags for potential fraud.
- Geographic clustering remains extreme, with about 500 hospices in a three-mile area and 137 on Van Nuys Boulevard, including one building that listed 89 providers.
- Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo reported that 14545 Friar St. in Van Nuys is registered to 197 hospice agencies and pressed the governor to adopt delayed emergency rules.
- CBS found anomalous billing patterns, including an average of about $29,000 billed to Medicare per patient in LA County versus $13,200 nationally, shared personnel across roughly 40 companies, and instances of billing with zero patients.
- Officials cite actions such as a moratorium on new licenses, more than 280 license revocations, and over 100 criminal charges, yet patients reported identity theft and denials of covered care as the attorney general called for faster responses to red flags.