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Feds shine in big California hospice fraud bust

To reach the alleged fraudsters, agents had to saw through metal.

That’s a fine metaphor for the task of prying entrenched, pervasive fraud out of scam-riddled California.

Credit is due the Trump administration, for doing this vital, painstaking work the state itself has long neglected –– and for enforcing the law: a key step in addressing California’s fraud epidemic.

In a coordinated takedown early Thursday morning, the feds arrested eight people –– in Covina, Glenale, Anaheim and Lakewood –– in connection with more than $50 million in Medicare fraud.

Those arrested included Amelou and Gladwin Gill, operators of St. Francis Palliative Care in Anaheim, who were nabbed at their Covina home by an FBI SWAT team that hacked through metal gates to get in.

The Gills’ end-of-life facility –– which had a patient survival rate of more than 97% over the past five years, the federal government said –– allegedly swiped $7 million from taxpayers.

“Since 2022, there have been allegations, but for four years, what seems to be typical in California, nothing was done,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services who was on the scene of the Covina raid Thursday.

Dr. Oz, along with fraud czar/Vice President JD Vance and prosecutor Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California, have done yeoman’s work in fighting California fraud.

Their success reflects well on their boss, President Trump, who campaigned in 2024 in part on ending waste, fraud and abuse across federal government programs such as Medicare.

Voters should take notice: Campaign promise kept.

The raids also follow a California Post investigation into the hospice fraud that honeycombs Southern California; reporters found a web of doctors who could be bilking Medicare (i.e., taxpayers) out of tens of millions of dollars.

The investigation found nonexistent addresses, empty storefronts, and addresses where multiple hospices were purported to operate.

In one example in North Hollywood, a building “for rent” was listed as the address for 12 hospices and home health agencies.

So it was welcome news last month when Oz said that “every single hospice in California is now under investigation.”

Thanks to advanced fraud detection tools, he added –– including AI ––  investigators can pinpoint potential scammers.

Oz also confirmed on Thursday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has suspended “hundreds” of hospice licenses in California.

The plundering of taxpayers –– virtually unchecked for years –– needs to end; those responsible should face consequences; state and federal officials need to install reforms to prevent more abuses; and California, long a bastion of progressive laxity, needs a culture change.

The feds get it, and the cleanup has begun.

Voters, meanwhile, should hold accountable those who presided over the fraud mess in California, starting with presidential aspirant Gavin Newsom.

The governor and the rest of California’s political class also need to remember: The cash being looted is not “free” money or politicians’ money or “the government’s” money or bureaucrats’ money.

It is our money, taxpayers’ money, hard-earned-through-long-days money.

Congrats to the feds for slicing through the metal.

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