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State records show 89 hospice companies at one Los Angeles office plaza. We went to look for ourselves.
CBS News i ^ | 03/18/2026 | By Laura Geller, Adam Yamaguchi, Rachel Gold, Graham Kates

Posted on 03/19/2026 7:42:06 AM PDT by SmokingJoe

The Merabi Professional Medical Plaza, a three-story, 32,000 square foot stucco and glass office building in Los Angeles, is home to a salon, a law office, a modeling agency, a realty corporation and, also, 89 licensed hospice companies.

Patient advocate Sheila Clark, who has worked to expose allegations of widespread Medicare fraud in the hospice industry, calls this building "ground zero" for the issue.

"This particular building I noticed, I'm like, 'dang, how can there be that many licensed and certified hospices in this tiny little building?,'" Clark said.

The building is among the most extreme cases of what's known as "clustering" to turn up in a sweeping CBS News investigation — a grouping of large numbers of hospice offices that state auditors consider a major red flag for potential fraud.

The Van Nuys address for Merabi Plaza appears dozens of times in state records for licensed hospice companies. Inside the building's entry hall, a directory lists numerous hospice agencies that line the long tiled hallways, although the building's owner claims many are no longer there.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: california; democratcorruption; democratincompetence; fraud; liberaltruth
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CBS is starting to do journalism again under Bari Weiss.
1 posted on 03/19/2026 7:42:06 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe
Social services are being looted and the Democrat party -- who pretends to care about such things -- is enabling the fraud.

Un-freaking-believable.
2 posted on 03/19/2026 7:45:10 AM PDT by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
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To: Antoninus

And its ALL paid for by printed money and massive Fed.gov debt.

So we are going into deep debt to fund democrat theft, and marxist social destruction of the USA. $40 Trillion now, and counting. It’s far worse than we ever imagined.


3 posted on 03/19/2026 7:48:31 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: SmokingJoe

Well, Nick Shirley has already been there, but we welcome CBS to the party. Don’t don’t doubt that there will be spin.


4 posted on 03/19/2026 7:51:41 AM PDT by fhayek
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To: SmokingJoe

“ Federal records show regulators visited multiple suites in Merabi Plaza between 2021 and 2025. They found nearly 400 violations at 75 companies, those records show

Yet, they continued to pay. And here we are. Cut them off.


5 posted on 03/19/2026 7:53:08 AM PDT by HollyB
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To: SmokingJoe

Same in Minnesota where a single office complex housed numerous Autism Centers and home health agencies. It doesn’t take more than a cursory site visit to reveal the likelihood of significant fraud, yet state officials apparently didn’t ever check.


6 posted on 03/19/2026 7:53:10 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: SmokingJoe
I remember when 60 Minutes used to thrive on stories like this.
7 posted on 03/19/2026 7:55:39 AM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: fhayek

“Well, Nick Shirley has already been there...”


And how did Governor Newsom respond to Shirley’s expose? By posting an AI photo showing Shirley to be a pedophile creep wanting to take pictures of kids.


8 posted on 03/19/2026 7:58:05 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Antoninus

Yup.


9 posted on 03/19/2026 8:00:27 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe

Kick 30% back to the body politic and you will never be charged, penalized, or held to restitution. It’s how the whole scam works along all government funded welfare systems.


10 posted on 03/19/2026 8:00:39 AM PDT by blackdog (The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.)
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To: SmokingJoe

This makes the Building itself eligible for CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE for being involved in a Criminal Enterprise


11 posted on 03/19/2026 8:03:57 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: SmokingJoe

another day, another millions/billions in fraud, yet nothing gets done about it.


12 posted on 03/19/2026 8:05:52 AM PDT by Dan Zachary
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To: hanamizu
Well Newsom got totalled on X for that.
13 posted on 03/19/2026 8:06:05 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe

I would not put it past CBS to conclude that “all is well”.


14 posted on 03/19/2026 8:09:01 AM PDT by rbg81 (=)
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To: rbg81

Not in this article.


15 posted on 03/19/2026 8:10:59 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: hanamizu
Unbelievable. (don't misunderstand my tone. It is totally believable from Newsom.)
16 posted on 03/19/2026 8:13:40 AM PDT by fhayek
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To: SmokingJoe

When do they trot out the claim that this building is just the “office address” but the “hospice care” occurs in a network of private homes, or the patients’ own homes?

Real investigation requires chasing down the business operators and auditing their records. The content of the “400 violations across 75 companies” needs to be aired also. Next, is there an individual or non-profit helping to set up the bogus businesses (recruit operators, who get ahold of patient identities, then start billing for fake services). The kingpins likely bring the stooges to a connected landlord to create a sham business presence. This seems like a RICO case.


17 posted on 03/19/2026 8:17:05 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: Chewbarkah

Don’t forget the state”investigaters” who were probably paid off to sport a pair of blind eyes.


18 posted on 03/19/2026 8:22:28 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: SmokingJoe

Just remember boys and girls. As DimocRats allow this to happen, the social security system is “running out of money”.
Absolutely criminal. People need to literally hang for this.


19 posted on 03/19/2026 8:22:32 AM PDT by vpintheak (The left is violence.)
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To: Dan Zachary
another day, another millions/billions in fraud, yet nothing gets done about it.

I agree with your take but I'm not sure what can be done. I am beginning to get the idea that the Trump administration is unable or unwilling to take on some of the more obvious issues even ones like this, obvious fraud that would be easy to uncover and reveal.

The, the administration, can't be everywhere all the time and there are only so many willing lawyers and prosecutors but it is frustrating to say the least.
20 posted on 03/19/2026 8:22:44 AM PDT by The Louiswu (USA FIRST...USA FOREVER)
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