By Ben Whedon

Published: April 15, 2026 4:35pm

Vice President JD Vance's anti-fraud task force has shut down nearly 500 hospices and home health agencies in Los Angeles alone, Fox News reported.

The figure includes 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies. Collectively, the facilities accounted for roughly $600 million in public funds fraud.

President Donald Trump officially named Vance his "fraud czar" earlier this month, following a series of raids in LA that saw federal authorities target many hospices in the area.

“Where there is fraud, the task force will find it,” a Vance spokesperson told the outlet. “We will not stop until every hard-earned taxpayer dollar goes toward the honest Americans who deserve them.”

That string of operations followed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Dr. Mehmet Oz in January posting videos highlighting the fraudulent hospice problem, linking the issue to the Armenian mafia in the area.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/vance-led-anti-fraud-panel-shutters-447-hospices-la-report

>>24504563

A Florida nursing assistant was sentenced this week to nine years in prison and two years of supervised release for an $11.4 million healthcare fraud and wire fraud conspiracy that sent hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries orthotic braces they did not need.

Cruz was also ordered to pay $3.7 million in restitution and $724,871 in forfeiture.

Court documents say that Christian “Chris” Cruz, 45, of Pompano Beach, Florida, owned and operated a durable medical equipment (DME) supplier based in Florida through which he submitted millions of dollars in false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary orthotic braces.

Cruz and his co-conspirator paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain signed doctors’ orders. They used these orders to ship orthotic braces to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide and then claim payment from Medicare, including to beneficiaries who neither requested nor needed the braces.

Cruz lied to Medicare, claiming that he was the sole owner and operator of the company, when in fact he shared ownership in the company with his co-conspirator, a convicted felon. Medicare would not have allowed the company to enroll with Medicare if it had known about Cruz’s co-conspirator.

The co-conspirator has been charged but remains at large.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/scott-mcclallen/2026/04/15/florida-nursing-assistant-sentenced-to-9-years-in-114m-medicare-brace-fraud-n2674511

>>24504567

>>24504563

if oz and jd eliminated all the medicare and medicaid fraud, there would be no national deficit