FBI SWAT teams fanned out across Southern California early Wednesday morning, executing arrest warrants on doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers accused of running sham hospice operations that bilked Medicare out of tens of millions of dollars. The operation, dubbed “Operation Never Say Die,” targeted nine separate fraud investigations and resulted in eight arrests, with 15 defendants charged in total.
Among those arrested were multiple nurses who allegedly used their credentials to lend legitimacy to fraudulent hospice companies. Federal prosecutors say the schemes followed a disturbing pattern:
- Recruit patients who were not terminally ill,
- Pay them cash to enroll in hospice care,
- Then submit millions in false claims to Medicare for services that were either medically unnecessary or never provided at all.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a press…
Insurance fraud involves making false or exaggerated claims to an insurance provider.
- Hard Fraud: Someone deliberately causes a loss (e.g., setting fire to a warehouse or staging a car accident) specifically to collect a payout.
- Soft Fraud: More common and often viewed as “victimless” by the perpetrator. It involves exaggerating a legitimate claim, such as overstating the value of stolen items in a home burglary to cover the deductible.