You know it’s bad if CBS is blowing the whistle…
A new CBS News report has exposed the sad state of hospice care in Los Angeles, California. The system is riddled with fraud, with nearly half of all companies showing serious red flags.
From CBS News:
Medicare is federally administered, and hospices must be certified for reimbursements. But the state issues the licenses for hospices to operate.
Three years ago, California’s state auditor sounded the alarm that Los Angeles County had seen a 1,500% increase in hospice companies since 2010 – more than six times the national average relative to its elderly population.
Auditors estimated LA County hospices overbilled Medicare by $105 million in a single year. The report called out notable red flags – key warning signs of fraud:
Multiple hospices in one building
Geographic clustering
Low patient counts
High rates of terminally ill patients later discharged alive
Excessive billing
Staff shared across multiple companiesThe state says it proceeded to investigate and revoke the licenses of 280 hospices.
But since then, the problem has continued to fester. CBS News examined the business and financial records of every hospice currently operating in LA County, applying the same indicators identified by the state. Indications of fraud have not stopped. In fact, they’ve grown.
The CBS News analysis reveals that over 700 of the roughly 1,800 hospices in LA County, trigger multiple red flags for fraud as defined by the state.
Watch the clip below:
CALIFORNIA HOSPICE FRAUD: There's a stretch in Los Angeles with 500 registered hospice companies within just three miles of each other. And 89 in a single building. But when we visited, we found empty offices, piled-up mail, and phone lines dead.
Watch CBS News' exclusive… pic.twitter.com/ydb8v0RqxE
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 10, 2026
More over at CBS News:
Incredible investigation today from @CBSNews. Our reporters visited "ground zero" for hospice fraud: Los Angeles, California. One building had 89 registered hospices . . .
Read it here:https://t.co/cHuzIo4Xec
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) March 10, 2026