The Merabi Professional Medical Plaza, a three-story, 32,000 sq. foot stucco and glass office constructing in Los Angeles, is residence to a salon, a regulation office, a modeling company, a realty company and, additionally, 89 licensed hospice companies.
Patient advocate Sheila (*89*), who has labored to expose allegations of widespread Medicare fraud within the hospice business, calls this constructing “ground zero” for the difficulty.
“This particular building I noticed, I’m like, ‘dang, how can there be that many licensed and certified hospices in this tiny little building?,'” (*89*) mentioned.
The constructing is among the many most excessive circumstances of what is often called “clustering” to flip up in a sweeping CBS News investigation — a grouping of huge numbers of hospice workplaces that state auditors take into account a significant crimson flag for potential fraud.
The Van Nuys tackle for Merabi Plaza seems dozens of instances in state records for licensed hospice companies. Inside the constructing’s entry corridor, a listing lists quite a few hospice businesses that line the lengthy tiled hallways, though the constructing’s proprietor claims many are not there.
(*89*) mentioned it makes “no sense” to discover so many licensed and authorized hospice firm workplaces working inside a single constructing. Auditors mentioned the clustering of so many companies raised issues as a result of it means that “the number of agencies in these areas likely exceeds the number of patients who need services.”
Concerns about clustering seem in a 2022 California State Auditor’s report, which discovered that Los Angeles County had skilled a 1,500% improve in hospice companies countywide since 2010. That’s six instances extra hospice suppliers than the nationwide common, relative to the county’s aged inhabitants.
Auditors mentioned different warning indicators for potential fraud included a number of hospices in one constructing, geographic clustering, low affected person counts, excessive charges of terminally sick sufferers later discharged alive, extreme billing and employees shared throughout a number of companies.
CBS News discovered that 72 of the 89 registered hospices in Merabi Plaza have at least three of these six potential warning indicators.
CBS News wasn’t the primary to go to the constructing with questions. Federal records show regulators visited a number of suites in Merabi Plaza between 2021 and 2025. They discovered practically 400 violations at 75 companies, these records show.
One inspection cited a nurse who reported {that a} affected person’s household was glad with care, regardless of indications that no one from the hospice ever visited that affected person.
Another inspection of a affected person’s chart listed drugs for malaria and diabetes. The affected person instructed inspectors he wasn’t taking both drug. At that very same firm, a hospice social employee wrote a couple of household’s grief when their beloved one handed, however there was no proof the affected person was really useless.
Many of the hospice companies in Marabi Plaza have been billing Medicare for years and accumulating reimbursements that come from federal tax {dollars}.
On a latest go to to the constructing, CBS News encountered the constructing’s proprietor, Kambiz Merabi. He mentioned officers from Medicare got here to his constructing two years in the past particularly trying for hospice businesses, and he allowed them to conduct their inspections.
Merabi mentioned to him, the companies seem to be reputable – noting that his tenants are required to present commonplace documentation that reveals they’re legitimate.
“I’m not a police or keeper of what they do, how they do business,” Merabi mentioned.
Merabi mentioned the numbers that seem in authorities records differ from these on his tenant checklist. He reveals solely 12 hospice companies working in his constructing. He defined that plenty of the businesses had just lately moved out of the constructing, although public records do not but mirror that, and hospices are required to notify authorities in the event that they transfer.
Advocates say the discrepancy raises questions on what they name “ghost hospices.” Those are paper companies that invoice the federal government for sufferers, even when they do not really present any actual care.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is accountable for investigating the business within the state, mentioned hospice fraud charges stay “unacceptable.”
“We’re committed to tackling the issue until we root it out and extinguish all fraud,” Bonta mentioned.
Medicare is federally administered, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, mentioned the company has “dramatically accelerated our ability to take out the bad guys by stopping their payments.”
“I want to make it clear, we’re not going to pay you money just because you sent me a piece of paper with a bill on it. We’re going to check to make sure that’s legitimate, and that document is evidence that you actually performed something that’s helpful to the American people,” Oz mentioned. “Or you’re not getting money from us.”
Merabi mentioned he, for one, helps that effort.
“I’m all for it because at the end of the day, you and I are paying for all those things that are not right,” Merabi mentioned.
