Vice President JD Vance, along with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, held a press conference in which they revealed the extent of fraudulent hospice facilities in the country, most of which have been found in Los Angeles, California, and the number is staggering. During Oz’s turn at the podium, he revealed that almost a third of the hospice facilities in the country are located in L.A.
“Unfortunately, we have a reality that, again, we got to face. A third of all hospices, a third of these programs in the entire country, are in Los Angeles. Ask yourself, how is that possible? It’s not. There are not that many people dying in Los Angeles. We’re not talking about California, just Los Angeles,” Oz explained during the press conference.
Oz then explained that the task force put together by President Donald Trump and led by Vice President JD Vance, has discovered that at least half of that third are likely fraudulent. “We believe that at least half of the hospices in the entire area around Los Angeles are fraudulent. And today we announced 800 of those hospices have been suspended. That’s getting us close to where we think we should be,” Oz told reporters.
He then said that those 800 hospices charged the American taxpayers who fund the program a whopping $1.4 billion in 2025. However, those facilities will no longer receive funding. Oz then turned to the Vice President and asked, “Mr. Vice President, if your core business was shut down by the federal government, would you call?” Vance answered in the affirmative.
“Crickets,” Oz responded, noting that they have only received a handful of inquiries from hospices asking why they were shut down. “We have less than 20 who have complained,” Oz said, adding, “We’re not even sure those are legitimate. Eight hundred hospices shut down and we’re not hearing much. It’s like it’s crickets out there. So we believe we’re on the right path.”
Oz then revealed the Trump administration is placing a six-month moratorium on new hospices and home healthcare businesses. “Here next is a nationwide moratorium on all new hospice and home health care. Why is that possible? Because when we squeeze the balloon in California and slow the growth of hospice and now take away 800 payments, 800 hospices, we know what those fraudsters do. They move to nearby Nevada,” he continued.
“Nevada has a seven-fold increase in hospices already. They’re moving across the country. So we, today, are announcing a moratorium nationally. There will be no new hospices or home healthcare open in this country. If you have the program now, you can keep it. You can go to ones that already exist. We’re not taking away any services, but there will be no new ones, no licenses granted, until we can figure out a better way of working across government,” Oz concluded.
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During the same press event, Vice President Vance said, “We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare. But we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.” Vance did praise Ohio and Maryland for cooperating with the fraud crackdown and being good examples for other states to follow.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video