LA hospice fraud: Feds announce major arrests in multimillion-dollar Medicare theft scheme
Feds announce arrests in multimillion-dollar Medicare theft scheme
Federal authorities on Thursday announced major arrests and criminal charges in a multimillion-dollar LA hospice fraud scheme targeting Medicare.
LOS ANGELES - Federal officials are moving to dismantle a sophisticated criminal network in Southern California, announcing major arrests on Thursday in a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud operation centered on hospice care.
What we know:
Speakers included First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Dr. Mehmet Oz (Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), and Akil Davis of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
The investigation centers on "multimillion-dollar hospice care fraud," a specific type of exploitation where providers bill the government for the highest levels of end-of-life care, often for patients who are not terminally ill.
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The backstory:
In a viral video released in late January, Dr. Oz toured the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles to highlight a cluster of suspicious hospice agencies.
Dr. Oz claims Armenian 'mafia' runs fraud scheme
Mehmet Oz accuses a small segment of the Armenian American community in Van Nuys of being at the center of a $3.5 billion fraud scheme, a claim that prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to blast the TV personality for alleged racial profiling.
He claims that 42 different hospice licenses are registered within just four blocks, often sharing the same multi-tenant office buildings to bypass federal oversight.
According to Oz, these "shell companies" are used by transnational crime organizations to trick or pay roughly 100,000 patients for their beneficiary numbers, allowing the groups to bill Medicare for services that are never provided.
Oz pointed to specific intersections along Van Nuys and Victory Boulevards as proof of "license flipping." He noted that the concentration of these businesses in such a small area is statistically impossible given the actual death rate in the neighborhood, stating, "So, either there are a lot of people dying here, or you got a fraudulent activity that is so good everyone wants to get in on it.
What's next:
Following the morning press conference, the suspects are expected to be processed through the federal court system in Los Angeles.
This crackdown is part of a broader 2026 initiative to audit high-billing hospice agencies across the U.S. to reclaim billions in lost taxpayer funds.
Dr. Oz discusses running Medicare and Medicaid
In an exclusive interview with FOX 11 at the Milken Global Conference, Dr. Mehmet Oz discussed running the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The Source: This report is based on information from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Background details on recent sentencing and administrative policy changes were gathered from official 2026 federal enforcement records and press releases issued by the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.