Vances task force suspends 447 hospices and | Political News

Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health companies in Los Angeles as half of a crackdown, alleging losses that top $600 million.

The latest actions observe a sequence of high-profile enforcement bulletins tied to hospice fraud in Southern California, including eight arrests in early April linked to a federal takedown focusing on sham hospice amenities. In what Vance described on social media as “Operation Never Say Die,” authorities earlier alleged fraudsters stole over $50 million, with defendants accused of “cheating Medicare out of millions.”

“Where there is fraud, the task force will find it,” a spokesperson for JD Vance told Fox News Digital. “We will not stop until every hard-earned taxpayer dollar goes toward the honest Americans who deserve them.”

A White House official added, “To all fraudsters: good luck trying to hide from the Vice President’s task force. [The anti-fraud task force is] reviewing and pursuing every possible lead. These suspension numbers, and the dollar values saved, are only going to increase.”

Among those charged a week in the past, Gladwin and Amelou Gill are accused of setting up a hospice in their daughter’s title and allegedly taking more than $7 million from taxpayers. The suspended medical facilities are all accused of comparable schemes.

“It’s all total fraudulent hospice services. They were signing out people who were not terminally ill. They were forging the documents, the medical records,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli beforehand said to Fox.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, blamed weak enforcement. “We need to get serious, and we don’t see that happening in California. The ecosystem is rotten. We’ve uncovered lots of other derivatives that happen when you don’t take care of this problem in the way it needs to be done,” he said at the time.

California officers, meanwhile, have marketed that they’re also aggressively pursuing hospice-related fraud, reviews GWN. On April 9, the day of the announced arrests, the state announced it had dismantled what it called a “massive hospice fraud scheme” that allegedly defrauded Medi-Cal of more than $267 million, with more than 20 people charged as half of “Operation Skip Trace.”

“Let this be a lesson to anyone targeting Medi-Cal and hospice care in California – we are on the case, and we’re coming for you,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “California has a no-tolerance policy for fraud.”

The issue has also grow to be politically contentious, with federal officers criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and Essayli calling California the “kingdom of fraud,” while AG Bonta accused the Trump administration of politicizing the issue.

He said the California DOJ has pursued health care fraud for a long time and famous that, over the last 10 years, the state’s Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse unit has recovered more than $1.5 billion from civil and prison instances.