How a pickleball injury highlights fraud in Californias hospice industry
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Lynn Ianni didn’t learn she was apparently dying in a Los Angeles County hospice care facility until her Medicare claim for a pickleball injury was rejected.“At first we laughed because it was an obvious clerical error,” the Seattle-based psychotherapist recalled before a congressional committee Tuesday, where she was providing testimony about her months-long experience in 2024 with fraud in the hospice industry.“It wasn’t just frustrating, it was terrifying.”Ianni appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee on Capitol Hill at a hearing that revealed details about fake claims and stolen doctors’ identities.
She was a victim of California hospice scammers.Her situation, like many others, occurred despite promises of reforms from lawmakers five years ago, when widespread corruption in California came to light.In late 2020, a Times investigation revealed that a cohort of mostly older Americans was being targeted by unscrupulous providers who would bill Medicare for hospice services and equipment for patients who they said were terminally ill, but who were in fact not dying.Ianni was denied care for a pickleball-related shoulder injury.
Her healthcare provider, she testified, told her that her Medicare would not cover treatment because she was enrolled in hospice.She testified that despite a scammer stealing her Medicare ID number and enrolling her in hospice without her knowledge, she had to continue to pay her premiums if she wanted coverage.Ianni tracked the hospice facility involved to an enormous strip mall and then tracked down the doctors who signed off on the fake care through their National Provider Identifier — it turned out to be a Santa Monica surgeon whose identity had also been stolen and had “no connection whatsoever to the hospice.” “Despite uncovering clear evidence of fraud, nothing changed,” she told the committee.
Ianni said she re...