Good Journalism: CBS Investigates Rampant Hospice Fraud in Newsom’s California

If CBS Information editor-in-chief Bari Weiss goes to achieve turning the automobile round with a long time of liberal bias and oversee a corporation that does function the place over two-thirds of Individuals function, she is going to want extra tales like this one from Tuesday’s CBS Mornings and CBS Night Information uncovering hospice fraud inside far-left California.

CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King had a gripping introduction: “For folks reaching the tip of their life resulting from sickness, hospice care helps them get via their ultimate days. Medicare usually pays for nearly all of it, making it very ripe for fraud.”

I do know this made the rounds yesterday, however it’s value underlining – this sort of story on ‘CBS Mornings’ about rampant hospice fraud in (deep blue) California is strictly the form of story that may make a @BariWeiss-led community a hit pic.twitter.com/q7fQ9g42CV

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 11, 2026

She then dropped the gorgeous statistic that “suspected Medicare hospice fraud totaled virtually — hearken to this quantity — $200 million in 2023” and, in California, “many hospices with crimson flags nonetheless stay in enterprise” regardless of having “vowed to stamp out fraud” “4 years in the past.”

Correspondent Adam Yamaguchi opened with one such fraud sufferer, a 69-year-old physician that, “in accordance with Medicare data” had been “dying in hospice care two years in the past” when she tapped her Medicare advantages for “bodily remedy” after a “pickleball damage.”

This resulted in Yamaguchi visiting a ghost hospice workplace (click on “broaden”): 

YAMAGUCHI: Sixty-nine-year-old Dr. Lynn Ayani (sp?) was, in accordance with Medicare data, dying in hospice care two years in the past, one thing she found when she sought bodily remedy for pickleball damage.

DR. LYNN AYANI: I used to be shocked. They stated, “You’re in hospice.” And I stated, “What? What are you speaking about? Do I appear to be a large number.” So she was “No, no!”

YAMAGUCHI: Ayani’s Medicare quantity had been stolen and utilized by an organization to fraudulently enroll her in hospice care, which she clearly didn’t want.

AYANI: Simply to assume you’re actually with out protection due to some ridiculous fraudulent factor.

YAMAGUCHI [KNOCKING ON OFFICE DOOR]: My title is Adam Yamaguchi. I’m with CBS Information. [VOICE-OVER] A CBS Information investigation discovered an trade ripe for fraud, particularly in California. Corporations accused of over billing, actual sufferers denied care, and it’s costing lots of of tens of millions of taxpayer {dollars}. The hospice Ayani was fraudulently enrolled in known as Fortuna. Once we known as, nobody answered.

AUTOMATED RESPONSE: Doesn’t settle for any message presently.

Yamaguchi defined California has claimed to have “elevated monitoring of the hospice trade 4 years in the past, figuring out the potential hallmarks of fraud,” however a CBS Information investigation “analyzed each hospice licensed in L.A. County, greater than 1,700 and checked for a similar warning indicators the state used, like a number of hospices packed into one constructing or caregivers whose sufferers supposedly at dying’s door are discharged alive.”

Together with lots of of tens of millions wasted a yr nationwide, Yamaguchi stated CBS Information discovered “greater than 700 companies with three or extra indicators of potential fraud” and “Sheila Clark, a hospice affected person advocate” instructed them “an space of Los Angeles that’s house to almost 500 hospice firm places of work in only a three-mile stretch.”

Visiting one such ghost workplace, he added “it’s actual sufferers in determined want who pay the worth.”

He took this madness to California Legal professional Basic Rob Bonta (D) and requested him why, regardless of the state’s claims to be clamping down on fraud, “[a fraudulent company] can go for a full yr and nonetheless not have their license revoked.”

“Is {that a} systemic failure,” he questioned.

Bonta provided boilerplate assurances that “[w]e will proceed till hospice fraud…is rooted out” by remaining “conscious of the crimson flags and…do one thing.”

Yamaguchi saved a vital element for the tip about why the piece targeted on a state’s response for fraud in a federal program:

Although Medicare is federally administered, the state licenses hospices to have the ability to function. Now, California prolonged a moratorium on new hospice licenses via subsequent yr. Officers inform us they’re nonetheless engaged on emergency laws to carry these hospices accountable. These laws had been purported to be added in the beginning of this yr[.]

An abridged model aired on Tuesday’s CBS Night Information with this set-up from anchor Tony Dokoupil: “Turning now to a CBS Information investigation about Medicare fraud involving each identification theft and pretend hospice care. It’s an space lengthy rife with fraud, costing taxpayers tens of millions, and it might be getting worse. CBS Information correspondent Adam Yamaguchi has particulars.”

On the finish, Yamaguchi added spin from Bonta that “[t]he legal professional common’s workplace says it’s charged greater than 100 defendants.”

To see the related CBS transcripts from March 11, click on right here (for CBS Mornings) and right here (for the CBS Night Information).