ABC, NBC Have Yet to Cover MASSIVE Hospice Fraud in Gavin Newsom’s California

Curtis Houck
April 13th, 2026 10:10 AM

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Since Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz’s sounded the alarm in January about the rampant Medicare fraud inside California’s hospice system, ABC and NBC have not spent a second on their flagship morning and evening newscasts informing viewers of the billions of dollars scammed from U.S. taxpayers.

CBS News, however, had a different idea and, while it took roughly two months, they arrived on March 10 with stories on CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News. All told, a Media Research Center analysis found they have combined for eight stories on the fraud-lined California health system totaling just over 17 minutes (17:06).

Unfortunately, at no point has CBS conceded this is a uniquely California problem or pointed the finger at Governor Gavin Newsom (D) even though, as CBS correspondent Adam Yamaguchi explained on March 10, “the state licenses hospices to be able to operate” despite being federally funded through Medicare.

The March 10 report was stunning, revealing “$200 million in 2023” was lost in Medicare hospice fraud and money continues to be stolen despite California having promised “four years” ago “to stamp out fraud”:

Correspondent Adam Yamaguchi has been the on-air face for the CBS News Investigative Unit’s research: “CBS News analyzed every hospice licensed in L.A. County, more than 1,700, and checked for the same warning signs the state used in an audit of the industry, like multiple hospices packed into one building, or caregivers whose patients, supposedly at death’s door, are discharged alive.”

Working with a “hospice patient advocate,” they found “nearly 500 hospice company offices” claimed to be registered within “a three-mile stretch” of Los Angeles.

“Now, California extended a moratorium on new hospice licenses through next year. Officials tell us they’re still working on emergency regulations to hold those hospices accountable. Those regulations were supposed to be added at the beginning of this year,” he added.

The next two instances CBS covered California’s hospice fraud were on CBS Evening News with anchor Tony Dokoupil reading news briefs on March 24 about their reporting having drawn the interest of the House Oversight Committee and then April 2 about “the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of ripping off Medicare for nearly $7.5 million” (click “expand”)

DOKOUPIL [on 03/24/26]: Tonight, an update on a CBS News investigation following our recent report on fraud in the hospice system in California. House Republicans say Congress is now looking into it. Our team found that more than 700 hospice programs in Los Angeles County triggered red flags for potential fraud, according to the state’s own definition. The House Oversight Committee, citing our reporting, called it “alarming evidence of fraudulent activity.”

(....)

DOKOUPIL [on 04/02/26]: CBS News is first to report the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of ripping off Medicare for nearly $7.5 million through a series of fraudulent hospice claims. Over 700 hospices in Los Angeles County alone have read flags for fraud, according to our investigative team. In this particular case, the flags included a five-year survival rate of 97 percent, high for what is supposed to be end-of-life care. The FBI says additional arrests are expected.

Yamaguchi’s second deep dive arrived on the April 7 CBS Mornings and CBS Evening News with more stunning results and enterprise reporting, focusing specifically on one particular doctor as a representative for how depraved California’s hospice system has become.

Specifically, CBS honed in on Los Angeles area Dr. Rajiv Bhuva, who claimed to have cared for nearly 2,800 patients in 2024 at 126 different facilities, filing Medicare claims worth over $70 million:

Yamaguchi took to the streets, knocking on multiple facilities Bhuva claimed to have worked at and, in a predictable development, had the door shut in his face. He even went to Bhuva’s home multiple times, which never resulted in a formal interview.

The abridged Evening News report included Dokoupil sharing Golden State hospice fraud had come to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s attention:

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced today a widening federal crackdown on fraud covering multiple areas, including health care, tax and corporate fraud. And amid an ongoing CBS News investigation into hospice fraud, Blanche called the problem the purest form of stealing from the American people’s pockets. 

And finally on the April 9 CBS Evening News and April 10 CBS Mornings, Yamaguchi said California law enforcement has nabbed 21 people in a hospice fraud scheme costing taxpayers $267 million while, in an update to his Bhuva story, the Trump administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — run by Dr. Mehmet Oz — has suspended him from filing claims.

On the cable side, a Media Research Center analysis of Nexis transcripts and Snapstream closed captioning found NewsNation broke the ice on the cable side with consistent updates starting on January 11’s NewsNation Live, followed by the Fox News Channel on January 19’s Fox & Friends, and Newsmax on January 27’s Wake Up America.

FNC had the first extensive expose of the issue on the January 30 America Reports by senior national correspondent William La Jeuneese.

In the time since, the three have combined for dozens of mentions.

As for the liberal cable channels, CNN has only mentioned it three times and all three were in the last week. In fact, two came on the California-based The Story Is, hosted by longtime California investigative and political journalist Elex Michaelson.

MS NOW, to no one’s surprise, has yet to touch it.

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