California has nearly 1,800 hospices billing your Medicare dollars.
A Fox News reporter just tried to ask one of them a single question.
What happened next is why Gavin Newsom should be very nervous right now.
What Innocent People Don't Do
The reporter's question was simple: "Can I talk about the care you provide?"
A woman cracked the door. Then shut it.
"I don't have time," she said from behind the closed door. "Please don't film!"
That's it. That's the whole story.
When you're running a legitimate hospice serving dying patients, you don't slam doors on reporters asking about care quality.
You invite them in. You show them the patients. You demonstrate you're doing exactly what you're billing Medicare billions to do.
Slamming a door is a confession.
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The Numbers That Made Fox Show Up
Los Angeles County has roughly 1,800 licensed hospice providers – about six times the national average for a region its size.
Dr. Oz estimates LA County alone accounts for roughly $3.5 billion in hospice and home care fraud annually.
Of those 1,800 hospices, CBS News found over 700 still operating despite triggering multiple fraud red flags.
On a single stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard, investigators found 42 hospice licenses registered within four blocks – many sharing the same multi-tenant office buildings.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, now running Medicare and Medicaid, stood in that neighborhood and put it plainly: "Either there are a lot of people dying here, or you got a fraudulent activity that is so good everyone wants to get in on it."
How the Scam Actually Works
The hospice fraud playbook is straightforward.
Fraudsters buy stolen Social Security numbers off the dark web and enroll those identities into California's hospice care system. They set up shell companies and bill Medicare for end-of-life care delivered to people who are completely healthy – and often don't even live in California.
In Operation Skip Trace, California's attorney general charged 21 people who collectively stole $267 million this way.
Not a single legitimate hospice service was ever provided.
In "Operation Never Say Die" in April, federal agents arrested eight suspects tied to a $50 million Medicare scheme where healthy beneficiaries were paid $300 a month in kickbacks to pose as terminal patients.
Doctors were involved. Nurses were involved. A psychologist was involved.
Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli didn't mince words: "I call Gavin Newsom the 'King of Fraud' because he reigns over more fraud than we've seen in the history of the United States."
Nick Shirley Started This Fire
The Fox News confrontation at Graceful Care Hospice didn't happen in a vacuum. It happened because Nick Shirley made it happen.
In late December 2025, Shirley went viral exposing alleged fraud at Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota. The video hit 135 million views on X. JD Vance reposted it and said Shirley had done "far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 Pulitzer prizes." FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed agents had already been surged to Minnesota. HHS froze all childcare payments to the state.
Shirley then took his camera to California, pointing at a luxury vehicle outside a hospice: "This is the sound of hospice money." He alleged he uncovered over $170 million in California fraud in a single investigation.
Now legacy media is following his playbook – showing up unannounced, camera rolling, asking the one question fraudsters can't answer: tell me about the care you provide.
When they can't, they slam the door. And the door says everything.
What Newsom Spent Years Doing Instead
Gavin Newsom spent years mocking Nick Shirley on social media while his state became the national capital of hospice fraud.
Newsom's office posted content designed to make Shirley look like a fool. Shirley's response: "You do realize I'm trying to help America eliminate fraud and waste, right?"
Meanwhile California missed the January 2026 deadline to adopt emergency hospice regulations. The rules designed to stop fraud – license requirements, background checks, minimum staffing requirements – still aren't in place.
Dr. Oz has announced a nationwide moratorium on certain equipment and a plan to review every single California hospice by year's end. That review is going to find thousands of facilities that answer the same way Graceful Care Hospice did – by slamming a door.
Here's what that means for the fraudsters: every door they slam is now a target.
Oz's team reviews the hospice. The billing records don't match any real patients. The address is a strip mall. The license belongs to someone who lives in another state.
Then come the federal agents – and this time, they're not knocking politely.
The Fox News clip is only 31 seconds long. But it shows exactly how this ends: reporters keep showing up, doors keep slamming, and one by one, the fraud machine Gavin Newsom built gets dismantled by the administration he spent years trying to stop.
Sources:
- "DOJ Targets California's 'Kingdom of Fraud' in Massive $50M Hospice Takedown," FOX 11 Los Angeles, April 2, 2026.
- "California AG Charges 21 in $267M Hospice Fraud Ring Bust," Fox News, April 9, 2026.
- "House Committee GOP Lawmakers Probe 'Rampant' Hospice Fraud in California," Fox News, March 24, 2026.
- "Four California Residents Sentenced to Prison in Connection with $16M Hospice Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme," U.S. Department of Justice, November 18, 2025.
- "LA Hospice Fraud: Roughly 1,800 Providers Operating in County," Fox News, March 12, 2026.
- "Oversight Committee Launches Investigation Into Rampant Taxpayer Fraud in California Hospice Programs," U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, March 23, 2026.
- "Nick Shirley Goes Viral After Slamming Newsom," Fox News, March 17, 2026.
