Tipsheet

CBS Has Uncovered Even More California Hospice Fraud

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  March 19, 2026 4:30 PM

CBS News is back with even more investigative reporting on California's massive hospice fraud scandal. Independent journalist Nick Shirley got the ball rolling on this, exposing how multiple fake hospice agencies occupy run-down buildings in seedy neighborhoods, billing Medicare for millions.

The scandal is so big that even mainstream outlets can't ignore it anymore. Fox News ran a report about it, and CBS News ran a story too, just last week. This morning, they dropped a second report about what's happening in Los Angeles County.

Here's more:

Patient advocate Sheila Clark, who has worked to expose allegations of widespread Medicare fraud in the hospice industry, calls this building "ground zero" for the issue. 

"This particular building I noticed, I'm like, 'dang, how can there be that many licensed and certified hospices in this tiny little building?,'" Clark said.

The building is among the most extreme cases of what's known as "clustering" to turn up in a sweeping CBS News investigation — a grouping of large numbers of hospice offices that state auditors consider a major red flag for potential fraud. 

The Van Nuys address for Merabi Plaza appears dozens of times in state records for licensed hospice companies. Inside the building's entry hall, a directory lists numerous  hospice agencies that line the long tiled hallways, although the building's owner claims many are no longer there. 

Clark said it makes "no sense" to find so many licensed and certified hospice company offices operating inside a single building. Auditors said the clustering of so many firms raised concerns because it suggests that "the number of agencies in these areas likely exceeds the number of patients who need services."

Concerns about clustering appear in a 2022 California State Auditor's report, which found that Los Angeles County had experienced a 1,500% increase in hospice companies countywide since 2010. That's six times more hospice providers than the national average, relative to the county's elderly population.

Instead of addressing these claims or stopping the fraud, Gavin Newsom's team is attacking Nick Shirley and CBS News for exposing how terrible a governor he really is and how he's ruined the state of California.

That, of course, is sarcasm, but it's the prevailing attitude of the Left.

Bari Weiss likely had something to do with it, too, but Shirley blew open these stories.

That's something this writer has been wondering, too. Hospice patients can access pain medications as well as anxiety medications like lorazepam (the generic name of Ativan) and haloperidol (Haldol). 

No one would be surprised if there was a drug trafficking element to this fraud, too.

Give them time.

Make no mistake, O'Keefe and Shirley laid the groundwork for independent journalism. 

Gavin Newsom said he shut down new licenses, but he's done nothing to address the 1,500 percent increase in hospice agencies in his state, when the senior population only went up 40 percent in the same time frame.

There is a problem in California, and the fraud appears to be orders of magnitude larger than even Minnesota.