VAN NUYS, Calif. (FOX26) — A field investigation by Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo is raising new questions about California’s hospice licensing system after she found nearly 200 hospice agencies listed at a single address in Los Angeles.

Macedo, a Republican from Tulare, investigated a Van Nuys address after records showed 197 hospice agencies registered to the same building.

Valley assemblywoman finds 197 hospice agencies registered at one LA address (Courtesy: Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo)

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She said she tried calling some of the numbers associated with the agencies, and people didn’t answer or hung up on her.

Many of the numbers were not in service.

She reported finding a dilapidated property that lacked basic necessities, including a wheelchair ramp and accessible parking.

The building also had strings of lights that appeared to be used for a rooftop party space.

Macedo says the building has a sign reading Medical Plaza. “No patient, by the way,” she said. “I did not see a single person coming in or out of the building, or doctors or nurses or anything like that.”

After the discovery, Macedo and other Republican lawmakers called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to act immediately and direct his administration to adopt regulations recommended by the State Auditor in 2022 to prevent fraud.

Following her investigation, the assemblywoman sent the following letter to Governor Newsom’s Office:

Your Administration has failed to produce the emergency regulations for hospices that were due January 1, 2026 – to protect patients – after years of extensions. Patients on hospice are terminal and deserving of comfort, dignity and pain relief in qualified facilities with licensed healthcare professionals who are subject to rigorous state oversight.

In 2020, the Los Angeles Times investigated and found massive fraud, resulting in a state audit. It stated, “the state’s weak controls have created the opportunity for large-scale fraud and abuse.”

This audit report also uncovered that your Administration “became aware of possible fraud during the licensing process and instead of denying the license, it granted licenses.” The report further stated that your Administration “[did] not always adequately investigate complaints.” There were “roughly 2,100 complaints from January 2015 to August 2021, of which nearly 350 included allegations of fraud and abuse,” and that “indicators strongly suggest that a network or networks of individual perpetrators in Los Angeles County are engaging in a large and organized effort to defraud the Medicare and Medi-Cal hospice programs.”

But in your January press release, you touted a revocation of “more than 280 licenses.”

With this level of abuse, we urge you to explain to taxpayers why your Administration continues to delay adopting regulations that would have established “the process for verifying the identity and qualifications of hospice agency management personnel.”

Delays only hurt vulnerable patients and their families, foster fraud and cause problems for legitimate operators that provide essential services, especially in rural and disadvantaged communities.

It has been four years since the audit report; your Administration has failed to protect families in the most difficult moment of their lives. Most people have never had to choose hospice before; they do not know what questions to ask, what warning signs to look for, or who to trust. That is why state oversight matters, and right now the system is broken.

It is imperative that you be transparent with the public in how you intend to address the rampant fraud, abuse and state regulation that allows bad actors to take advantage of both taxpayers and our most vulnerable Californians.