Medicaid fraud fears grow amid massive red state billing spike in sector that also plagued Minnesota

As fraud concerns ramp up across the country, particularly involving Medicaid, North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek told Fox News Digital the problem is very real in his state, especially when it comes to autism therapy, an area that has been highly scrutinized in Minnesota.

Boliek is sounding the alarm on potential waste, fraud and abuse within the state’s Medicaid program, specifically noting in an interview with Fox News Digital a 47,000% explosion in autism therapy billings he has flagged since taking office last year.

"Those are vital services to folks and individuals that need that therapy," Boliek said. "But when you have, like in North Carolina, a system that went from $1.4 million or so in total billings for autism therapy to more than $660 million a year in billings on autism therapy within a five-year range, that begs an audit from the state auditor, who in North Carolina, we are the top watchdog agency for taxpayer waste, fraud and abuse prevention. So, we've dug down into that and are in the middle of that."

Boliek, who was speaking to Fox News Digital at the annual State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, says his office is "hand in hand" with Vice President JD Vance’s focus on eliminating waste, fraud and abuse to "make sure that the people who need the services and deserve those services get the services" without "wasting money."

One of the core problems, Boliek explained, is the system is oftentimes designed in a way that fails to properly safeguard against waste and abuse.

"What we’ve got is we’ve seen examples where there might be three different clinical providers billing during the same tranche of time on an autism therapy client, and that is because of poor rulemaking," Boliek explained.

kwtx.com
By Laura Geller, Adam Yamaguchi,
Rachel Gold, Graham Kates
Mar. 23, 2026

Official State records show 89 hospice companies
at Los Angeles’ Merabi Professional Medical Plaza

(CBS News) - The Merabi Professional Medical Plaza, a small three-story,
32,000 square foot stucco and glass office building in LA, rents space to
<><>a hair salon, a law office,
<><>a modeling agency, a realty corporation
<><>and 89 licensed hospice companies.
<><>this adds up to more rental space than actually exists

The Merabi building is among the most extreme cases of “clustering” —
a grouping of large numbers of hospices considered a major red flag for potential fraud.
<><>The Van Nuys address, “Merabi Plaza”
<><>appears dozens of times in official state records for “licensed hospice companies.”
<><>Merabi’s building directory lining hallways lists numerous hospice agencies.
<><>landlord Merabi says he himself lists only 12 hospice agency rentals.

Taxpayers would be interested to know how Merabi handled the discrepancy on his tax returns.

Auditors said the Merabi building clustering of so many firms raised concerns because it suggests that “the number of agencies in these areas likely exceeds the number of patients who need services.”

Concerns about clustering appear in a 2022 California State Auditor’s report, which found that Los Angeles County had experienced a 1,500% increase in hospice companies countywide since 2010. That’s six times more hospice providers than the national average, relative to the county’s elderly population.

Auditors said other warning signs for potential fraud include
<><>multiple hospices in one building,
<><>geographic clustering,
<><>low patient counts,
<><>high rates of terminally ill patients later discharged alive,
<><>excessive billing
<><>and staff shared across multiple companies.

CBS News found that 72 of the 89 registered hospices in Merabi Plaza have at least three of the six potential warning signs.

CBS News wasn’t the first to visit the Merabi building with questions. Federal records show govt regulators visited multiple suites in Merabi Plaza between 2021 and 2025. They found nearly 400 violations at 75 companies, those records show.
<><>One inspection cited a nurse who reported that a patient’s family was satisfied with care,
<><>this despite indications that no one from the hospice ever visited that patient.
<><>a look at a patient’s chart listed medications for malaria and diabetes.
<><>The patient told inspectors he wasn’t taking either drug.
<><>At that same hospice, a social worker wrote about a family’s grief over a loved one passing,
<><>but reporters found no evidence the patient was actually dead.

Many of the hospice companies in Marabi Plaza have been billing Medicare for years and collecting reimbursements that come from federal tax dollars. On a recent visit, CBS News encountered the landlord, Kambiz Merabi. He said officials from Medicare came there two years ago specifically looking for hospice agencies. Merabi said the businesses appear to be legitimate – noting that his rental tenants are required to provide standard documentation that shows they are valid.

“I’m not a police or keeper of what they do, how they do business,” Merabi glibly said.
Merabi was not forthcoming about how he handled the discrepancy on his tax returns.

Merabi said the numbers that appear in government records differ from those on his tenant list. He shows only 12 hospice companies operating in his building. Merabi explained that a number of the agencies had recently “moved.” Public records don’t yet reflect that, and hospices are required to notify authorities if they move.

Advocates say the discrepancy raises questions about what they call “ghost hospices.” Those are paper companies that bill the taxpayers for patients, and pocket massive amounts of tax dollars even if they don’t actually provide any real care.

“Those are vital services to folks and individuals that need that therapy,” Boliek said.

Parents of autistic children are likely desperate for solutions, but that doesn’t mean there are any.

Does anyone here have direct knowledge of what “autism therapy” or “counseling” consists of? I’m not aware of any “cure” for autism — isn’t it a condition? Who diagnoses the patients and assesses their progress? What are the criteria for success?

I’d think that the most effective effort would be educating the parents about what to expect, how to set up the best environments for the children, how to deal with typical behaviors, etc. Seems like this could be done with online resources and mutual support groups at very little cost.

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