Congressional Testimony Highlights Hospice Fraud Cases in California Involving Empty Facilities and False Enrollments

Witnesses detailed extensive hospice fraud in California during testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, highlighting empty facilities that passed regulatory surveys and false enrollments locking patients out of Medicare benefits.

Sheila Clark, president and CEO of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association, stated that fraudulent hospice providers are flourishing in California despite regulatory oversight. The association is a nonprofit that pushes to improve access to quality end-of-life care.

Clark described instances where hospices operate in name only, with no patients or staff. "You'd be amazed at how many hospices… the door you can walk up to in California and there is nobody there. Five months' worth of mail that you can see stacked… nobody's there," Clark stated.

She added that such empty hospices passed a survey. "And that passed a survey. How did that happen?" "How do you put a hospice in a burrito stand in California?" Dr. Lynn Ianni, a licensed psychotherapist with nearly 40 years of clinical experience, also testified before the committee on Tuesday.

Ianni was locked out of her own Medicare benefits for months after she was falsely enrolled in hospice care. "Imagine being told, in effect, that you are at the end of your life — when you are not — and then being denied access to care because of that error.

It was not just frustrating. It was terrifying," Ianni stated. A Medicare representative gave Ianni the name of the hospice where she was supposedly enrolled. The hospice appeared legitimate on Medicare's website with an NPI number, a named CEO, and an address.