LA County hospice fraud — 89 providers registered to same building: CBS report

A CBS News investigation has revealed indicators of widespread fraud occurring in California's hospice care industry, particularly in Los Angeles County. The report analyzed the current licenses and business records of roughly 1,800 hospice care centers in the county and found that over 700 of them, or 42 percent, triggered red flags for fraud.

This comes after the state of California issued a crackdown on the hospice care industry after a 2023 state audit showed that LA County hospices overbilled Medicare by $105 million in one year, resulting in the revocation of 280 hospice licenses. Auditors were triggered to investigate the matter after seeing a 1,500% increase in hospice companies since 2010.

Despite the effort, the CBS News report shows that there appears to be a significant amount of fraud still occurring. When reporters went to one building in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, they found 89 different hospice care providers registered at the building. The building appeared to be predominantly empty and had overflowing mailboxes, signaling indicators of fraud, per the report.

According to the research, about 500 hospices are operating within a three-mile radius, with 137 of them located on Van Nuys Boulevard alone. Federal inspection records show that officials discovered flaws in the Van Nuys building during visits between 2021 and 2025. According to CBS News' study, roughly 40 of those companies shared the same employees, including administrators, medical directors, and owners.

The paper contacted 56 of the Van Nuys hospice offices and discovered disconnected phone numbers and/or invalid dials. Several businesses answered the phone calls and denied any indicators of fraud, claiming they serve real patients.

According to the report, LA County billed Medicare roughly $29,000 per patient, which is double the national average of $13,200 per patient. The highest rate billed in the county was $74,000 per patient. At least seven hospices submitted bills to Medicare that had zero patients.

VML, one of the hospice agencies, billed roughly $49,000 per patient. The agency shares a building with other hospice centers and shares employees with multiple companies. CBS reporters found VML's office building empty with mail piling up at the door. VML stopped billing Medicare in 2024 but still has an active license.

Next door to VML is World Health Hospice, Inc., which was locked and didn't have a voicemail box set up, according to the review, which also revealed that at least 75 people were employed across the same five hospice companies.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, told the paper that more than 100 people have been criminally charged in the hospice industry since the 2023 crackdown. However, he acknowledged that additional efforts are necessary. "We need to be responsive to the red flags and react to them, not just count them," he said. "Our main lane is the accountability side, the criminal investigations, the civil investigations. That's after the damage is done, though, unfortunately."