California\u2019s hospice system<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nDr. Fariba Javaherian is a registered dermatologist, but according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) billing data obtained by The Post, she is associated with 63 hospice facilities across California either as a medical director, attending physician or in some other capacity.<\/p>\n
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) billing data obtained by The Post shows Dr. Fariba Javaherian, a dermatologist, was associated with dozens of hospice agencies in 2025 and billed Medicare more than $35 million. Facebook\/Fariba Javaherian<\/p>\n
The National Provider Identifier (NPI) registered with Dr. Javaherian, a unique 10 digit number given to individual healthcare providers, was used for 1,662 unique patients across the 63 hospice agencies and appeared on more than 6,000 claims that billed $35,816,331.<\/p>\n
Following The Post\u2019s extensive investigation, CMS revoked Javaherian\u2019s license to bill Medicare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked for comment about Javaherian\u2019s suspension to bill Medicare, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz told The Post, \u201c\u2018Do no harm\u2019 was ignored, and in its place, was a practice of devastating damage disguised as help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Javaherian\u2019s white coat was a costume,\u201d Oz added. Javaherian is not accused of any wrongdoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you\u2019re full time, all you do is hospice, once you get to the 150, 175, 200 [patient] range and beyond, that\u2019s when you\u2019re pushing it and playing with fire,\u201d a hospice medical director who operates several facilities in the state told The Post. \u201cShow me a doctor who has 225 patients under their care \u2026 it\u2019s not physically possible to do a good job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between Jan. 1, 2018 and Sept. 30, 2025, Javaherian\u2019s NPI was used for more than 31,000 claims at 130 different hospice agencies, totaling more than $173 million.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCMS has been closely monitoring Dr. Fariba Javeherian\u2019s illicit activities,\u201d said CMS Spokesman Christopher Krepich. \u201cIn coordination with Vice President Vance\u2019s Fraud Taskforce and acting on substantial evidence gathered, CMS revoked Medicare enrollment for Javaherian and took action to stop paying providers with which she was closely affiliated with.\u201d <\/p>\n
Javaherian denied working for 63 hospices, instead claimed her identity was stolen to open up fraudulent agencies. Facebook\/Fariba Javaherian<\/p>\n
CMS confirmed the dermatologist was tied to dozens of hospice agencies across the state, at least 16 of of which have now had their licenses suspended due to The Post\u2019s reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn doing so, CMS has also suspended those businesses associated with Dr. Javaherian from receiving funds or bill medicare for any services,\u201d Krepich added. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office \u201ccan\u2019t comment on, even to confirm or deny, potential or ongoing investigations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Javaherian denied working for 63 hospice agencies, instead claimed she was a victim of fraud and that her NPI was stolen through HospiceMD \u2014 a cloud-based electronic medical records and software platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Javaherian is a registered dermatologist with an office located inside the Devonshire Medical Plaza in Northridge, Ca. Pedro Colo for CA Post<\/p>\n
NPI numbers are public and often easy to find.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been doing it for 12 years and I have seen so many things and I have been calling here and there, stopping them. I called HospiceMD, they said, \u2018no, doctor, you cannot deactivate your account,\u2019\u201d Javaherian told The Post. \u201cHospice should deactivate your account.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Javaherian alleged HospiceMD started fraudulent hospice facilities under her name.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey start hospice under me, they charge Medicare, in a matter of six months they disappear. It\u2019s been going on,\u201d she said, adding that she is \u201cnot on their payroll.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
HospiceMD CEO Sahaar Jospeh told The Post the company is a third-party medical software vendor for hospice agencies, and \u201cdoes not create or manage any hospice\u00a0agencies itself, nor does HospiceMD manage individual user accounts associated with those hospice agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHospiceMD takes fraud complaints seriously and encourages individuals who believe their name and\/or credentials have been used to commit fraud, to report such claims to appropriate government agencies responsible for investigating those claims,\u201d Jospeh said. \u201cFurther, HospiceMD complies with all lawful\u00a0subpoenas\u00a0and search warrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
HospiceMD has not been accused of any wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
Two of the hospice agencies where Javaherian is listed as the main doctor \u2014 Kaplan Hospice Care Inc. and Throne Hospice \u2014 are registered to this building in North Hollywood, where 11 other home health and hospice companies are also located. Pedro Colo for CA Post<\/p>\n
Experts told The Post that they have not heard of an NPI being stolen to fraudulently bill Medicare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know anybody, nor have I heard of an example where somebody said my NPI was stolen and that\u2019s where fraudulent activities is coming from,\u201d a medical director for a hospice company told The Post, adding that he would \u201cscream from the rooftops\u201d and do everything in his power to clear his name, if that did happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Javaherian claims she works for only seven hospice agencies and that she does \u201cproblem solving\u201d for a specific salary between $500 and $2,500 per month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor specific money, like within five hundred, depending on how many patients, I have to do problem solving,\u201d Javaherian said. \u201cEvery five minutes I get a call from a patient. Patient is getting better, patient has a bedsore, patient fell down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She went on to say that her patients frequently die, with a \u201cminimum four to five deaths per day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not gods, but they\u2019re supposed to die and my patients are dying. Medicare knows me, I\u2019m very open with them,\u201d Javaherian said. \u201cI have an office, I have my patients, and I keep in touch with all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
CMS revoked Javaherian\u2019s license to bill Medicare following The Post\u2019s investigation. Facebook\/Fariba Javaherian<\/p>\n
CMS told The Post it has no record of Javaherian contacting the agency, and billing data shows her patients do not appear to be dying at the rate she claims.<\/p>\n
In 2025, at Throne and Kaplan \u2014 two hospice agencies where Javaherian is listed as the only doctor \u2014 no patients died.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dermatologist went on to add that she routinely contacts the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) regarding potential fraudulent activity involving her NPI as well as the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n
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\u201cI have been in contact with Department of Health every single month,\u201d she said. \u201cI send them list of my hospices and I email them, I call them and said, \u2018you guys protect me if there is anyone using my information behind my back to start the hospice and put patients under my name,\u2019 they know that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when The Post asked Javaherian if she could provide one of those monthly emails she sends to CDPH, she refused, and even declined to provide the names of the seven hospices where she claims to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m done with you, I explained to you on the record. I have nothing else to say,\u201d Javaherian told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is no requirement for doctors working at hospice facilities to send the CDPH monthly updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked to confirm whether Javaherian reported fraudulent activity using her NPI and if she sends routine emails, CPDH replied it is \u201clooking into it and have no further comment at this time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe California Department of Public Health (CDPH) takes any allegation of fraud or abuse within the state\u2019s licensed health care facilities extremely seriously,\u201d a spokesperson for the agency said. \u201cSafeguarding the integrity of hospice services is essential to maintaining public trust and ensuring that patients receive appropriate, high-quality care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least 16 hospice agencies that Javaherian was associated with have had their license suspended due to The Post\u2019s reporting. Facebook\/Faribajavaherian Javaherian<\/p>\n
Javaherian also said the DA\u2019s office started an investigation into her claims that her identity was stolen, adding that she has \u201cbeen working with them\u201d and has had \u201cconversation with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A source at the DA\u2019s office told The Post that Javaherian did contact the office in early March, but they have not been able to get back in touch since and there is no investigation to the best of their knowledge. <\/p>\n
Javaherian is also listed on claims with Domingo Barrientos, who pled guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and ordered to pay $10,123,260 in restitution. He was sentenced to 63 months in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Home health and hospice account for roughly $3.5 billion in fraud each year, a source told The Post.\u00a0 Pedro Colo for CA Post<\/p>\n
At St. Teresa Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. in Burbank, Javaherian and Barrientos are listed as the two doctors, billing $703,000 and $2.7 million, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Comfort Days Hospice in Encino, Ca., Javaherian had 90 patients and filed more than 700 claims for a total of $4.2 million, while Barrientos charged taxpayers nearly $300,000, according to data obtained by The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The licenses for both hospice facilities were terminated in 2025 because it failed to meet federal standards to be a Medicare-certified provider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although Javaherian was connected to Barrientos, she has not been accused of any wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
In the greater LA area, there is roughly $3.5 billion in home health and hospice fraud<\/a> each year, a source told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California doctor who billed a whopping $35 million in hospice care to Medicare last year has had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3130,47,16709,15768,4182,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-247666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-fraud","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-medicaid","14":"tag-medicare","15":"tag-metro","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}