Hospice fraud victimizes seniors, but Gavin – Latest News
California hospice fraud is not only fleecing taxpayers.
It’s stealing the health of senior residents.
Which raises a query: Which group did Sacramento lately act to guard?
The seniors? Or the fraudsters?
California hospice fraud is not only fleecing taxpayers. MediaNews Group through Getty Images
Which raises a query: Which group did Sacramento lately act to guard? Anadolu through Getty Images
Consider the plight of Linda Henry, 71, of Long Beach.
As The California Post and different media lately reported, fraudsters enrolled her in hospice care with out her data, successfully reducing off her Medicare protection: Why cowl, say, allergy testing for a individual on the brink of death?
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The mess took months to type out earlier than Medicare conceded the senior had been victimized.
Henry’s expertise underscores that hospice fraud just isn’t a distant, summary or victimless crime.
It hurts numerous victims like her, all half of a California fraud albatross the feds estimate at $3.5 billion in LA County alone.
The mess took months to type out earlier than Medicare conceded the senior had been victimized. David Buchan for Ca Post
Those billions had been collected from hard-working taxpayers –– solely to be squandered on fraud.
One would suppose the state’s governor and legislators could be appalled by this fraud-fest of their state, and actively work to stop it.
Instead, Gavin Newsom & Co. lately permitted laws to guard the fraudsters.
The Stop Nick Shirley Act (AB 2624), nicknamed by GOP Assemblyman Carl DeMaio for the journalist who final yr uncovered rampant fraud in Minnesota, goals to quash scrutiny of the very “nonprofits” that abuse taxpayers to pay for vehicles, mansions and yachts.
While supporters deny focusing on Shirley, the laws was launched shortly after the journalist started filming California childcare services that he claimed had been fraudulent.
The law permits civil lawsuits towards those that publish photographs, like pictures or videos, of employees at organizations that purport to help immigrant teams. It additionally lets potential fraudsters scrub their home addresses from public information by claiming they face harassment.
The building at 17075 Devonshire St., which homes the primary workplace of an attending doctor for dozens of hospices in California, is pictured on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Northridge, California. Pedro Colo for CA Post
Newsom says the law delivers “privacy for immigration support services providers,” whom he claims have confronted threats and intimidation following elevated public scrutiny.
But the law is more likely to chill inquiries into the very variety of fraud that traumatized Linda Henry.
It’s additionally is a violation of the First Amendment –– and a shame.
Of course, Newsom, together with Attorney General Rob Bonta, for the higher half of a yr has fought, dismissed and denigrated federal efforts to curb California fraud.
Bonta in February staged a information convention in downtown LA to blast federal claims of California fraud as “reckless,” “false” and “ridiculous.”
Tell that to victims like Linda Henry.
The state’s prime law enforcement officer later did prosecute a relative handful of California fraud instances. But speak about late to the celebration.
The state’s prime law enforcement officer later did prosecute a relative handful of California fraud instances. But speak about late to the celebration.
And in January, Newsom replied to information of federal fraud probes by slamming President Donald Trump as “a deranged, habitual liar” whose “relationship with reality ended years ago.”
As if blasting Trump is the reply to continual fraud in California.
Both males’s feedback landed poorly and have aged badly.
Just this yr, federal prosecutors have introduced a number of main fraud instances involving dozens of defendants in California.
The Trump administration, together with fraud czar JD Vance and prime LA federal prosector Bill Essayli, deserve credit for doing what Sacramento received’t: pushing to finish entrenched fraud within the Golden State.
Meanwhile, we now have the spectacle of Newsom, and state legislators, successfully siding with fraudsters over victimized seniors.
That’s fairly a platform for the gov’s brazen presidential ambitions.
Bumper sticker thought: “Newsom for fraud 2028!”
