Doctors, nurses arrested in Southern California health care fraud investigation

Key Points:

• The U.S. Department of Justice announced a major health care fraud operation in Southern California, resulting in eight arrests and charges against more than a dozen individuals, including doctors and nurses involved in fraudulent hospice care schemes.
• Defendants recruited non-terminally ill beneficiaries to pose as hospice patients, leading to Medicare paying out hundreds of millions of dollars on false claims, with one Glendale-based hospice submitting over $5.2 million in fraudulent claims.
• Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced a statewide review of all hospice providers in California to ensure compliance and address widespread fraud concerns.
• Oz faced criticism over a video showing him accusing an Armenian-owned bakery of fraud, which was denounced as discriminatory; authorities clarified that none of the defendants arrested were linked to that video.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom defended the state's efforts against hospice fraud and criticized the previous federal administration for attempting to shift blame onto California's management of federal programs.