Hospice fraud in California: what families should check

What does hospice fraud look like?

Two patterns come up again and again. The first is enrolling people who are not dying: a hospice signs up someone with a chronic illness, bills Medicare the daily hospice rate for months, and the person loses coverage for the treatment they still needed. The second is billing for people who never chose hospice at all, sometimes people who did not know their Medicare number had been used.

In each, the hospice, not a doctor, started it.

What happened in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire

The Legislature stopped new hospice licences on January 1, 2022 under SB 664, and AB 177 extended that pause to January 1, 2027.

The cases reached the courts. On November 5, 2025 the California Attorney General announced felony sentences for the operators of four Inland Empire hospices that billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for people who were not terminally ill, with $1.46 million in restitution ordered. Those hospices are not named here, because the point is the pattern, and because a licence can change hands.

What the state changed

California has issued no new hospice licences since January 1, 2022, and the pause runs to January 1, 2027. California's first hospice licensing regulations took effect on June 22, 2026. Every hospice's licence, its district office and any complaint findings are public in CDPH's Cal Health Find.

What Medicare changed

A hospice that changes owners within 36 months of enrolling in Medicare is treated as a new provider and must go through the full enrollment review again (read the 36-month rule). CMS set up a Hospice Special Focus Program for the poorest-performing hospices; it has been paused since February 14, 2025, and there is no current list. A hospice's survey history, quality scores and family survey results are still public in Care Compare.

What are the red flags for hospice fraud?

Any one of these is a reason to stop and check. Hospice is a medical benefit that starts with a doctor's certification, never with a sales pitch.

• Gifts, groceries, gift cards or cash offered for agreeing to hospice or for giving your information.
• Someone you did not contact shows up at your door, calls you, or approaches you at a community event or senior center to sign you up.
• A request for your Medicare or Medi-Cal number before a nurse or doctor has talked with you about your health.
• Pressure to sign today, or papers you are not given time to read.
• Being told hospice is a way to get extra help at home, housekeeping or equipment, when no doctor has said you have a terminal illness.
• Being told you cannot change your mind, or cannot keep your own doctor.
• A Medicare Summary Notice that shows hospice charges for someone who never chose hospice.

How do you check a hospice in ten minutes?

Ask for five things: the exact legal name, the Medicare provider number (CCN), the National Provider Identifier (NPI), the California hospice licence number and the street address of the office that would serve you. Then look them up in Care Compare, Cal Health Find and the NPI Registry. The steps, and what each record tells you, are on how to verify a hospice.

How to report a hospice

Where to call for poor care, for a hospice you never chose, and for suspected billing fraud, with the numbers, is on how to report a hospice in California. If someone is unsafe right now, call 911.

Common questions about hospice fraud