Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force is making a lot of people in Washington nervous, and honestly, it is about time. According to the vice president’s office, the administration has now withheld a staggering $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers suspected of fraud. That is not pocket change accidentally lost in the couch cushions at the Pentagon. That is taxpayer money that was apparently flowing through a system riddled with abuse while bureaucrats looked the other way for years.
The crackdown follows a series of suspensions targeting providers across multiple states, with Los Angeles County becoming ground zero for what appears to be one of the largest hospice fraud operations in recent memory. Last month alone, the task force suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies in the Los Angeles area. Investigators estimate the theft tied to those providers exceeded $600 million.
And here comes the truly incredible part. Administration officials revealed that roughly 90 percent of the suspended providers never even contacted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services after payments were halted. Think about that for a second. Legitimate medical providers suddenly lose federal funding and do not immediately call regulators demanding answers? That is the equivalent of your bank freezing your account and you just shrugging while eating lunch.
Investigators reportedly uncovered what they described as “ghost” operations. Some locations were vacant buildings, while others appeared to be running out of retail storefronts and food businesses. Apparently somewhere along the line, people thought operating a hospice between a nail salon and a taco stand would not raise suspicion.
Los Angeles County has long been considered a hotbed for hospice fraud. A CBS News analysis found that nearly one-third of hospice facilities in the county displayed warning signs commonly associated with fraudulent activity. Even more absurd, nearly 500 hospices were packed within a three-mile radius in one area, with 137 businesses located along Van Nuys Boulevard alone. That is not a healthcare network. That is a strip mall convention for federal billing scams.
State auditors warned years ago that such dense clusters of providers made no logical sense based on patient demand. Their report suggested many operations could be billing for patients who either did not exist or were not eligible for hospice care at all. Yet somehow the money kept flowing anyway.
The Vance task force is now expanding efforts nationwide, using audits, data analytics, and enrollment freezes to stop fraudulent operators before they can siphon off additional taxpayer dollars. The administration has also referred over $22 billion in suspicious COVID-era Small Business Administration loans for investigation.
For years, Americans were told massive government programs simply needed more funding and less scrutiny. Meanwhile, fraudsters treated Medicare, Medicaid, and pandemic relief programs like an ATM with no security cameras. The fact that it took this long to aggressively target these schemes says plenty about the priorities of Washington’s permanent bureaucracy.
At least now somebody is finally slamming the brakes on the gravy train.
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