Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 16, 2026


BONUS POD： Fraud Stopped on the Terminally Corrupt California Hospice Hustle


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15 minutes

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143.39317

Word count

2,191

Sentence count

143

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Hate speech

1

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Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:30.000 The total fraud estimated at more than $600 million so far.
00:00:39.420 Operation Skip Trace uncovered and ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million.
00:00:47.900 No employees or patients, yet look at the dozens of providers licensed at this one address.
00:00:54.020 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:57.560 Good Thursday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:01:01.280 And we've got a bombshell of a story for you.
00:01:03.880 The Vice President's Task Force has now suspended over 400 California hospice businesses for alleged fraud.
00:01:11.460 And apparently that's just the tip of the iceberg.
00:01:14.520 So how much money was it costing you as a taxpayer?
00:01:17.820 The number will shock you.
00:01:20.000 But before we get to that, I want to take a moment and ask you to help the people in Israel
00:01:24.720 with my friends at the IFCJ working right now on the ground for all those in need.
00:01:30.800 I want to take a moment and talk to you about a man named Phineas,
00:01:34.660 who as a child survived the Holocaust.
00:01:38.020 Phineas survived because Christians hid him from the Nazis,
00:01:42.400 risking everything to save his life.
00:01:45.700 Today, he is in his 80s.
00:01:47.740 He can no longer stand on his own or leave his home to receive medical care.
00:01:52.240 And when the siren sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or the strength to reach safety.
00:01:59.500 But once again, Christians are helping save his life through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
00:02:06.520 A mobile clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside of his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime.
00:02:15.560 Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said, and now again, they're helping me.
00:02:21.160 So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with words, but with action.
00:02:30.220 Give $45 right now, and you can rush life-saving essentials to the vulnerable in Israel under fire.
00:02:37.080 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCJ.
00:02:45.160 or go online to ifcj.org.
00:02:48.560 That's ifcj.org.
00:02:52.080 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:02:55.720 Story number one.
00:02:56.940 So you may remember a story that we talked about on this show,
00:03:00.280 and that was the fraud that is being exposed with hospice care centers in California.
00:03:07.100 Well, once the White House knew about this, they didn't just talk about it.
00:03:10.800 they went into full court press to make sure that those that were defrauding American taxpayers
00:03:16.120 were stopped once and for all. That is why they decided to have a new anti-fraud task force.
00:03:23.980 And they didn't just put some random person in charge of it. No, the president said it was going
00:03:29.040 to be led by the vice president, J.D. Vance. Well, now we've got quick results. Over 400,
00:03:36.040 I'm going to say that number again, over 400 hospice and nearly two dozen home health agencies in California are having their payments suspended due to troubling findings, with the White House issuing a grave warning to suspected fraudsters.
00:03:55.040 since the task force to eliminate fraud was launched just on march the 16th jd vance and
00:04:02.460 his team have hit the ground running to root out where the american taxpayers are being ripped off
00:04:08.040 by bad actors on march the 25th just nine days after they launched this a source familiar with
00:04:15.720 the matter has now said that the task force and the centers for medicare medicaid services
00:04:20.640 had identified and suspended already at that point in just nine days 70 los angeles-based
00:04:27.780 hospice and home health businesses that showed red flags of being well fraudulent as of wednesday
00:04:35.820 that number has skyrocketed to 447 hospice businesses and 23 home health agencies around
00:04:46.160 the state have been cut off because of alleged fraud with the total of those suspensions being
00:04:52.640 valued at more than 600 million dollars of your tax money the numbers obtained by fox news
00:05:01.900 illustrate just how deep the corruption runs in california and other democratic-run states where
00:05:08.280 health care services have taken taxpayer money with little to no oversight and this is likely
00:05:15.100 what we're being told just the tip of the iceberg where there is fraud the task force will find it
00:05:22.620 that is what a vance spokesperson said continuing we will not stop until every hard-earned taxpayer
00:05:30.800 dollar goes towards the honest americans who deserve them the shocking discoveries in california
00:05:38.820 come after vance's and the cms administrator dr oz had a february announcement of plans to block
00:05:47.360 259 million in medicaid funds that were headed to minnesota that is the side of the highly
00:05:55.000 publicized fraud schemes that governor waltz and the attorney general keith ellison allowed to wreak
00:06:01.640 havoc on the entire state a white house official echoed the statement from vance's office and
00:06:08.160 indicated that the task force will continue to track down alleged perpetrators of such scams
00:06:14.000 to all the fraudsters good luck trying to hide from the vice president's task force they're
00:06:20.520 reviewing and pursuing every possible lead the white house said in a statement continuing
00:06:25.880 these suspension numbers and the dollar value saved are going to increase the fbi by the way
00:06:34.000 has raided the home of a psychologist and nurse for an alleged hospice fraud scheme according to
00:06:40.300 CBS News and this is just one example of what we're dealing with Gladwin and Gill were arrested
00:06:46.340 for allegedly fraudulently billing Medicare for more than 7.45 million the pair was running a
00:06:54.940 hospice with a survival rate of over 97 percent i wish i was joking according to a cbs analysis
00:07:04.840 700 of the 1 800 hospices in los angeles county alone triggered multiple red flags for fraud
00:07:15.340 quote we are enforcing a zero tolerance policy for criminals who defraud american taxpayers
00:07:21.720 is what the first assistant United States attorney had to say,
00:07:26.300 saying the defendants arrested this morning,
00:07:28.920 who are charged with stealing millions of dollars of health care benefits,
00:07:33.200 got caught and now face years in prison.
00:07:37.740 And it's official.
00:07:38.780 J.D. Vance is saying it's not just in Los Angeles, not just in California.
00:07:44.840 They're going to be looking all over the place for this type of fraud.
00:07:49.280 Another example of what they're finding is the California AG
00:07:53.220 announcing a major hospice fraud bust in L.A. County,
00:07:57.500 alleging that the scheme defrauded Medi-Cal of more than $276 million.
00:08:05.160 Why is he doing the investigation?
00:08:07.660 Because J.D. Vance and the president are not backing down.
00:08:11.480 We're here today to announce the results of a massive hospice fraud bust.
00:08:17.540 in Los Angeles County, and it's called Operation Skip Trace. Operation Skip Trace uncovered and
00:08:25.920 ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million. So just to be clear,
00:08:34.040 a quarter billion dollars over. Funds that are paid for by California taxpayers, funds that are
00:08:40.960 meant to provide care to Californians in need. It is unacceptable, it is illegal, and we will not
00:08:47.920 stand for it. As Nick Shirley, who helped expose a lot of this fraud in California, said, this is
00:08:53.800 how hospice fraud works. It's really simple. You get a small office in LA, you collect Medicare
00:08:59.840 beneficiary numbers, you enroll people into hospice, and bill the government for millions of
00:09:05.020 You get caught or become suspicious, you pack up and walk away with millions.
00:09:10.980 This is exactly why the president and the vice president are doing what they're doing now,
00:09:15.500 to try to stop all of this.
00:09:17.820 As Fox News described it, here's how they summed up simply what the president has done in 30 seconds.
00:09:24.640 The anti-fraud task force led by Vice President J.D. Vance
00:09:28.000 has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies suspected of fraud right here in Los
00:09:36.160 Angeles. The total fraud estimated at more than 600 million dollars so far. We talked about that
00:09:42.480 recently with the CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. The number of suspensions is roughly a 539
00:09:49.440 percent increase from the 70 reported by Fox News Digital at the beginning of April. Now one of the
00:09:56.200 byproducts of all of this fraud and just how big it is and how many millions and then billions of
00:10:02.700 dollars have been stolen from taxpayers is the fact that the media is actually now being forced
00:10:08.980 to cover this. Even the CBS Evening News gave an entire one minute and 46 seconds to tell America
00:10:19.360 about this, maybe for the first time they've heard about it. Update tonight in our CBS News
00:10:24.740 investigation into hospice fraud in Southern California. Our team was the first to report
00:10:29.580 charges filed against more than 20 suspects in what's described as a $267 million fraud case
00:10:36.720 with zero legitimate patients. Here's CBS News correspondent Adam Yamaguchi.
00:10:43.500 CBS News obtained exclusive body camera footage showing California Department of Justice officers
00:10:49.000 rating 10 homes and offices in a crackdown of suspected hospice fraud. State Attorney General
00:10:55.260 Rob Bonta says they've charged 21 suspects. What will address fraud is us doing the hard work,
00:11:01.360 heads down, sleeves rolled up, doing the investigation, doing the arrests, doing the
00:11:05.880 prosecutions. Here's how Bonta describes the alleged scheme. The suspects purchased personal
00:11:11.220 information from the dark web, used it to enroll in California's state-run Medicaid program,
00:11:16.160 Then used 14 hospice companies to bill the government for this phantom care.
00:11:21.760 All of it coming from taxpayers.
00:11:24.280 There were no actual services, no hospice centers.
00:11:28.300 For months, CBS News has been uncovering signs of potential hospice fraud.
00:11:32.600 We found one doctor's name on claims from 126 hospices.
00:11:36.360 He wouldn't speak with us.
00:11:37.700 Medicare chief Dr. Mehmet Oz announced on social media
00:11:40.360 they revoked that doctor's ability to bill the system.
00:11:44.080 It's become a political flashpoint with Democrats and Republicans trading blame,
00:11:49.080 even as state and federal officials try to work together.
00:11:51.840 It is a challenging time between some states like California and our federal partners.
00:11:57.960 We remain committed to partnership.
00:12:00.020 CBS News has learned those officials are now working through 300 open investigations in California.
00:12:05.540 Adam Yamaguchi, CBS News, Los Angeles.
00:12:07.800 More than 300 investigations and the fraud is so bad that even CBS Evening News is like,
00:12:15.720 all right, we'll get in on this.
00:12:17.440 The story is just too good for us to not talk about.
00:12:21.840 Even Fox News Channel, the site of 100 plus hospice agencies, which all happen to be in
00:12:28.680 literally one building.
00:12:31.300 Listen to this.
00:12:32.060 The building looks like that supposedly houses 197 different hospice and health care companies.
00:12:38.640 That's California lawmaker Allie Macedo investigating suspected hospice fraud in L.A.
00:12:44.360 I did not see a single person coming in or out of the building.
00:12:48.520 Neither did we in January.
00:12:50.600 Lots of offices, but no people.
00:12:53.640 Three floors, no employees or patients.
00:12:56.440 Yet look at the dozens of providers licensed at this one address.
00:12:59.960 Five years ago, state auditors flagged this location for potential fraud.
00:13:04.180 They say they found non-working phones, locked doors, and stolen Medicare numbers.
00:13:08.840 In L.A. County, California 89 hospice companies are registered to a single address.
00:13:14.980 Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill say California's weak oversight helped perpetuate fraud.
00:13:20.620 A charged Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom denies.
00:13:23.720 We've been very aggressive as it relates to going after the fraud and abuse.
00:13:27.500 He also says hospice fraud involving Medicare falls under federal jurisdiction.
00:13:32.840 Well, that's misleading.
00:13:34.140 State law says California is responsible for licensing, inspecting, and investigating hospice complaints
00:13:39.900 and can deny, suspend, or revoke licenses.
00:13:43.240 This problem is on his hands and he's refusing to put in rules and regulations.
00:13:47.620 That lawmakers mandated take effect by January this year, including better background checks,
00:13:53.220 a ban on multiple hospices sharing a single office, more comprehensive on-site inspections,
00:13:59.620 and face-to-face meetings before awarding a license.
00:14:03.040 We asked Newsom why his administration missed the deadline.
00:14:06.520 We've eliminated over 280 licenses. We've been on this since late 2021.
00:14:12.240 So what the governor does not say is the sweeping reforms that auditors want have largely not been imposed.
00:14:16.980 And L.A. County still has 1,500 more hospices, Dana, than New York and Florida combined, including 503 mile radius.
00:14:26.200 Makes no sense.
00:14:27.080 And they're billing Medicare double the national average.
00:14:30.520 There it is.
00:14:32.160 The real story.
00:14:33.740 This is, number one, the tip of the iceberg.
00:14:37.000 And number two, costing you billions of dollars.
00:14:40.640 And the President of the United States of America has said to the Vice President, you're in charge.
00:14:46.100 Go find the fraud, go after the fraudsters, and make sure that American tax dollars are not being wasted and sent out of the country by illegal immigrants, for example, in Minnesota as well.
00:15:00.980 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. 0.99
00:15:05.240 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:15:10.140 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.