Fraud in Los Angeles

If you don't pay attention to things outside your immediate reach, you may not have heard that intrepid citizen journalist Nick Shirley went to Los Angeles and chased down the addresses of hundreds of phantom "hospices" bilking Medicare for billions.

He found 42 of 'em were supposedly operating in one strip mall.  No patients, but 42 small offices with mailing addresses.  Even the most superficial investigation by the state--or by local Media (all leftist Democrat-fellators) would have discovered this.  But of course no one did until Nick.

 

(For young Americans: "hospice" is where nursing staff care for the terminally ill, meaning recovery was highly unlikely.) 

Nick knocked on every door claiming to be a "hospice."  Most were empty, locked.  Of the ones that were occupied, the occupants claimed not to know anything about a hospice.  Others simply refused to say anything.  Nick got it all on video.

Brazen, in-you-face, fuck-you fraud.  So did the state instantly shut 'em down?

Hahahahahahaha!  I see you just arrived on Earth, so enjoy your stay!

Of course they weren't shut down, cuz some state employees were either negligent (not doing their job of verifying that payees were legit) or on the take.  Your choice.

But don't let anyone claim the Democrat-ruled state assembly (legislature) didn't take action!  No no no, citizen!  Duh Democrats passed a LAW to prevent citizens from investigating corruption.  The local Democrat-fellating Media--without a trace of irony--quickly nicknamed it the "Stop Nick Shirley Act."

How the scam worked: Grifters would get the names and SS numbers of older people who'd recently been hospitalized, and would pay a corrupt doctor to sign a form recommending the patient be sent to hospice.  The places can be expensive, and the fraudsters weren't shy about billing Medicare for top-notch care.

But there wasn't any.  No patients in these places.  In fact some of the fake hospices billed taxpayers for patients who'd died months earlier.

Now rational people would think that before sending ANY check for, say, $3 million a month to an alleged hospice, the state would verify that the company was indeed on file with the Secretary of State and licensed by whatever passes for medical licensing in that shit-hole.  But of course no one did, either because no agency head or manager had enough sense to, or because state lackeys were on the take.  Your choice.

After Nick uncovered the obvious massive fraud, state computer experts cross-checked their data and found one doctor who claimed to have personally examined something like 300 elderly patients in a single day and recommended hospice care for all.  (For young Americans: Assuming an 8-hour workday that would mean examining each alleged patient for about 90 seconds.) 

Now the question is, how many of the fraudsters have fled to Mehico or Somalia or China, thus effectively putting 'em beyond reach of U.S. law.  

And in the midst of the billions of dollars in fraud, the unasked question is: is the hastily-passed law barring citizens from investigating fraud still on the books?

Say, citizen, that Gavin Newsom has done such a fine job of running California, so he'd make a perfect Dem nominee for president in 2028, eh? 

(hat tip to "basicoptimism")