Fox News senior correspondent William La Jeunesse drove home what hardworking Americans already fear: Los Angeles has become ground zero for organized schemes that bilk Medicare by signing up vulnerable seniors for hospice care they never requested or needed. The on-the-ground reporting shows how these crooks hide behind paperwork and shell companies while taxpayers pick up the tab.
Federal prosecutors have been quietly prosecuting a string of these scams, exposing sham hospice companies that used stolen identities and fake bank accounts to bill Medicare millions for phony services. Recent DOJ filings reveal multimillion-dollar laundering and billing schemes that siphoned off roughly $16 million through sham hospices, with defendants pleading guilty and federal forfeitures already moving forward.
Those criminal financial maneuvers aren’t isolated incidents — another California man pleaded guilty to a related scheme that cost Medicare more than $17 million, showing the depth and persistence of this fraud network. These aren’t mistakes or paperwork errors; they are calculated, systemic thefts carried out by people who know how to game a broken system.
A separate jury conviction earlier documented illegal kickbacks and fake charts tied to millions in fraudulent hospice claims, highlighting that direct payoffs to referral networks remain a lucrative tool for these racketeers. Senior citizens and families were left devastated — denied care they needed because fraudsters were milking Medicare while the real patients suffered.
Independent audits have long warned about lax oversight in California’s hospice industry, pointing to suspicious clusters of agencies and billing patterns that scream organized fraud rather than isolated bad apples. Regulators approving hospice licenses by the dozens while failing to do basic vetting created the environment where these scams could flourish.
When federal officials finally turned up the heat, California’s political class responded with theater instead of accountability, with the governor accusing federal figures of playing politics even as the DOJ and HHS document criminal conduct. The back-and-forth is as predictable as it is dangerous: while politicians posture, fraud continues and seniors pay the price.
This moment should be a wake-up call for taxpayers and patriots: we must stop coddling corrupt operators and demand real enforcement, not press conferences filled with excuses. That means revoking licenses, seizing assets, throwing the book at the organizers, and restoring common-sense oversight so hospitals and hospices that do honest work aren’t tarnished by the thieves.
Finally, if Washington is serious about protecting seniors and plugging budget holes, it must confront the enabling policies that let these scams thrive — from lax licensing to porous borders that make identity theft easier and allow criminal networks to exploit our systems. America’s elders deserve dignity and honest care, not a conveyor belt for fraud; conservatives will keep fighting to root out the crooks and protect the taxpayers who fund the system.
