A hospice fraud problem is spiraling out of control in California.
There have already been several investigations into the problem, both from federal agencies and independent journalists who have exposed sprawling complexes and buildings all focused on the same thing.
‘Nobody there in person. Nobody answering the phones.’
Diagnosis: Fraud
An April, a Los Angeles Times report identified a “well-known” building housing 89 licensed hospices. This reportedly included a hospice operator charged with six felony counts who allegedly illegally took $2.5 million from the federal government by using collective signatures of retirees to enroll them in hospice.
The two-story building in the Van Nuys area of L.A. billed more than $38 million to Medicare in 2023 in total, the report stated, and the same building was the basis for YouTuber Danny Mullen’s recent video.
Mullen, along with podcast co-host and fellow comedian Leo Dottavio, visited the building to find it nearly vacant, save for people operating unrelated businesses.
“A lot of these hospice businesses had numbers on the door promising 24-hour on-call customer service. So, we rang them up,” Mullen said in the video. “Nobody there in person. Nobody answering the phones.”
RELATED: How a California crook committed $178 million worth of health care fraud — in just one year
– YouTube
‘Relyable’ sources
Most of their calls went to voicemail, some of the numbers had no inbox set up, and some were no longer in service, but one business that misspelled “reliable” as “relyable” did answer the phone.
The man who answered, whose number was allegedly listed on the business’ door, told Mullen and Dottavio, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and also that he was “not interested” in taking on a hospice patient.
“Whose hospice, man?” he added, before later calling back to tell the content creators, “I think you called the wrong number.”
The man later called back a second time, asking who gave them his number.
“F**k you, man,” the voice is heard telling Dottavio, despite Dottavio informing him the number was listed in public.
RELATED: The Trump administration is cracking down on fraud
Nobody home
In January, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz reported that California could be worse than Minnesota when it comes to fraud. Oz said that hospice fraud in the state is not only related to mafia and gang activity, but also involves human trafficking.
In March, YouTuber Nick Shirley investigated a plethora of businesses, including an entire complex, relating to possible hospice fraud. Shirley knocked on the doors of multiple businesses that appeared to be vacant. The same goes for Mullen and Dottavio; none of the alleged hospice businesses they visited at the aforementioned building were occupied at the time.
One man told the duo, “No one is here today,” but did not seem to provide a reason as to why the vast majority of the building was empty.
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