Hundreds Of California Hospice Providers Shut Down In Latest Fraud Crackdown

innesota might’ve been getting most of the attention in recent months, but the Trump administration has repeatedly indicated that it is eager to root out fraud and corruption wherever it’s found.

And as many Americans might have already guessed, California appears to be a hotbed of such activity.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz recounted the latest crackdown in the Golden State.

As Fox News reported, he explained that international criminals are behind much of the $1 billion in taxpayer-funded fraud involving roughly 800 hospice and home health providers recently stripped of their licenses. 

Oz singled out Los Angeles as a major hotspot, claiming the city alone accounts for nearly one-third of all hospice providers nationwide, a concentration he called “not rational.”

“We’re shutting down, we believe, half of them because we don’t think they’re legitimately helping people…” he said.

“The massive system we have built to provide appropriate healthcare services in America is being defrauded at levels that no one thought imaginable,” he added.

“If we could take out the fraud, waste and abuse, we would double the life expectancy of the Medicare Trust Fund. It would be there twice as long for you as it will be now… just by taking the fraud out, not increasing your taxes, not throwing money at it from the government… but actually stopping bad people from corrupting the system,” he said.

Oz said the administration has also deferred more than one billion dollars in federal payments for the last quarter of audits, as scrutiny surrounding the alleged widespread abuse intensifies.

The latest evidence of rampant blue-state fraud sparked an immediate social media firestorm: 

I’m just mind blown that we allow this happen. I see poor people all over my city with blue tarps on their roof and then I hear this shit happening. Just pisses me off beyond words. Give a $1M of that billion and I’ll spend every cent on helping the poor. INSANE!

— None-ya (@AutoLiftsGalore) May 17, 2026

It’s a great start, but the fraud in California is going to dwarf that found in Minnesota. Power on, Dr. Oz! pic.twitter.com/96Li1ZJ6pQ

— Greg’s iPinions (@Gregs_iPinions) May 17, 2026

800 suspensions…my math brain wants to estimate how many patients that touches. Feels awful … hoping investigators help every person harmed and make things right.

— Elena Meier (@Elena06vibes) May 17, 2026

CNN reported on Oz’s ongoing effort to expose fraud in California, although that outlet naturally didn’t portray it as a particularly noble cause:

California has been in Oz’s sights for months. The administrator has filmed several videos in the Los Angeles area alleging widespread fraud among hospice providers and demanded information from Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has frequently tangled with the Trump administration.

Oz has become one of Trump’s top lieutenants in the battle against fraud. He estimates that fraud, waste and abuse in federal healthcare programs total $100 billion. His efforts largely focus on areas that have seen large increases in billing or in providers participating in the programs.

CMS is scrutinizing billing from California providers who are outliers in terms of size – “numbers so big you can’t imagine anyone billing for these numbers of patients and that much for each patient,” Oz said Wednesday.

“So we’re asking California to clarify for us how it got there,” he continued, noting that the growth of spending in personal care and home services is twice the rate of the average of the rest of the US.

The agency is also investigating expenditures for undocumented immigrants.

Newsom’s office pushed back on Oz’s claim of potential fraud, arguing that billing for supportive services in homes has grown because the state is focused on minimizing the number of people sent to nursing homes.

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Here’s what Oz had to say in an interview that aired this weekend on Fox News: