Washington, D.C. — Empower Oversight today pressed for comprehensive records from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) related to hospice fraud and oversight failures across California — with a particular focus on Los Angeles County. The records request targets widespread regulatory failures in the county.
The letter request spans five broad categories asking for:
- documents related to complaints, whistleblower reports and other investigative files, including any enforcement actions or declinations, about California hospice providers,
- documents and records regarding licensing and oversight controls, including audits or assessments of the program and processes,
- internal communications within CDPH and with other state agencies and the Governor’s office related to hospice oversight,
- documents regarding program integrity including billing and audit data; and
- documents regarding referrals made by CDPH for fraud, and any related records.
“When federal taxpayer dollars are at stake, the public has a right to know. Media reports raise a number of questions about how California has been overseeing hospice providers and responding to fraud concerns. It’s basic transparency and accountability to the taxpayers who are spending billions to fund these enterprises,” said Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight.
Empower Oversight is also seeking internal communications between CDPH and a range of federal agencies — including the California Department of Justice’s Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
The request for information centers around how CDPH responded — or failed to respond — to known fraud indicators, including suspicious clustering of hospice providers at single addresses, abnormal billing patterns, and unusually high reimbursement rates per patient.
Last month, the anti-fraud task force led by Vice-president J.D. Vance began its probe and suspended 70 hospice and home health providers in Los Angeles.
In January, Empower Oversight requested from the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families records related to the oversight and administration of the state’s Child Care Assistance Program which was also the subject of numerous reports of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
For a copy of the letter to CDPH, click here.
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