latimes--2020-12-09--End-of-life care has boomed in California. So has fraud targeting older Americans

Martin Huff was 67 when he fell off his bicycle , banged up his knee and spent a couple of hours in a Riverside County emergency room before walking out under his own power .
Ten days later he was in hospice care , diagnosed as terminally ill by a small Covina provider of end-of-life services that said he was weak and wasting away , with six months or less to live .
Five years after that grim prognosis , however , Huff was still very much alive .
He testified in federal court that no one from California Hospice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exam before claiming he was dying .
“ I really never knew exactly what the deal was on the hospice , ” he said .
Huff is among a legion of mostly older Americans targeted for audacious , widespread fraud in an industry meant to provide comforting care in their final days , a Los Angeles Times investigation found .
Like Huff , many are unwitting recruits by unscrupulous providers who bill Medicare for hospice services and equipment for “ terminally ill ” patients who aren ’ t dying .
Intense competition for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to $ 1,432 a day each in Medicare payments — has spawned a cottage industry of illegal practices , including kickbacks to crooked doctors and recruiters who zero in on prospective patients at retirement homes and other venues , The Times found .
The exponential boom in providers has transformed end-of-life care that was once the realm of charities and religious groups into a multibillion-dollar business dominated by profit-driven operators .
Nowhere has that growth been more explosive , and its harmful side effects more evident , than in Los Angeles County .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ sixfold in the last decade and now account for more than half of the state ’ s roughly 1,200 Medicare-certified providers , according to a Times analysis of federal healthcare data .
Scores of providers have sprung up along a corridor stretching west from the San Gabriel Valley , where California Hospice Care was located , through the San Fernando Valley , which now has the highest concentration of hospices in the nation .
“ There are too many providers in L.A. County , and too many providers who are in it for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Banach , who heads the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization , the largest U.S. trade group for hospices .
“ Folks who go into this for the wrong reason generally do not do a good job.
” Much more than money is at stake .
Some patients who unknowingly enrolled in hospice later discovered they had signed away their rights to life-saving emergency medical treatment , state inspection records show .
Others endured excruciating pain in their final days when providers failed to deliver the comforting care they desperately needed .
Still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ festering sores that developed maggots or resulted in hospitalizations .
Privacy laws and government reports that keep the names of patients , doctors and hospice administrators confidential make it difficult to quantify and humanize many of the cases .
But The Times found that since 2008 , regulators have cited hospices in California more often than anywhere else in the country for the most serious types of violations , four times as many as states such as Texas and Georgia , which also have large numbers of providers .
Despite those citations , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , suspended or shut down deficient hospices , state reports show .
Oversight has been weakened further during the coronavirus pandemic , as regulators suspended requirements for most hospice inspections and limited the types of complaints they investigate .
California , which has among the lowest barriers to setting up a new hospice , also leads the nation in violations for enrolling patients without medical proof they were terminally ill .
The Times ’ analysis revealed that Los Angeles County hospices discharged patients 80 % more often than providers nationwide , highlighting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ red flag for Medicare fraud .
California Hospice Care claimed that Jesse Staten suffered from terminal heart failure when it signed him up for end-of-life treatment .
His predicted six months to live expired in 2012 , but he didn ’ t : When The Times contacted him eight years later , he was still going strong .
“ I ’ m hanging in , ” said Staten , 75 .
“ I ’ ve got a lot of issues in my blood and I have other issues , but I can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hospice Care of bilking taxpayers of $ 7.5 million in illegal payments in connection with Staten , Huff and scores of other ineligible Medicare recipients .
The hospice owner and two doctors were sentenced to prison , and several others were convicted or pleaded guilty in the scheme .
Many of the hospice ’ s patients were addicts lured by the promise of free narcotic painkillers , prosecutors said .
Some were enlisted by a doctor who collected a bounty from the hospice on each , according to his indictment .
One was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a waiting list for a liver transplant when she signed up for hospice , which prohibits curative care .
It took her months to get reinstated , and she died not long after finally receiving a new organ .
“ That ’ s the last hope , and having that person removed from the liver donor list by placing them in the program is conduct that is hard to understand , ” U.S. District Judge James Otero said when sentencing a hospice nurse to 18 months in prison .
“ That ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ option for terminally ill patients , hospice care properly delivered has been a godsend for millions of dying Americans and their families .
It provides palliative care and prescription drugs , nursing services , medical equipment , supplies and spiritual counseling for those diagnosed with six months or less to live .
The U.S. hospice industry took root in the mid-1970s but flourished only after Medicare began covering its services in 1983 .
For-profit providers sprung up to meet a growing need that outstripped the capabilities of charities and religious institutions that pioneered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , the number of U.S. providers has roughly doubled , while Medicare spending on hospice has grown sixfold , to $ 19.2 billion a year .
More than 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries now receive care from some 5,000 hospices , nearly a quarter of them in California .
“ Virtually all of the growth is of for-profit providers , which appear to be crowding out the local nonprofits that established the hospice model and had a desire to maintain its integrity , ” said Michael Connors , a long-term care advocate with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For-profit operators now make up 70 % of all hospices certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and 91 % of those in California .
In Los Angeles County , they account for 97 % .
Satisfaction surveys reported by hospices nationwide show that more than 80 % of respondents rate their hospice as a 9 or 10 out of 10 , but in L.A. County that figure drops to 74 % .
Respondents in L.A. also were less likely to report that hospices always gave them the help they needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients ’ homes , but services also are rendered at stand-alone facilities , nursing homes and assisted-living centers .
Regulatory inspections and financial audits are infrequent , making the system a soft target for scammers .
Complaints about shady operators began lighting up the California Senior Medicare Patrol hotline in mid-2017 and have not let up , said Sandy Morales , who oversees the federally funded statewide hotline whose mission is to help Medicare beneficiaries prevent , detect and report fraud .
“ It ’ s all over Southern California : Riverside County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Los Angeles , Bakersfield , ” she said .
“ Right now , it ’ s huge.
” Since January 2019 , her agency has forwarded more than 100 cases of suspected hospice fraud to federal investigators , Morales said .
One doctor ’ s office in Los Angeles County recently reported that 10 patients appeared to have been fraudulently enrolled by a hospice .
Fraudsters stick to a familiar script , enticing or duping Medicare recipients into signing up for services they don ’ t need , she said .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food banks , senior centers and apartment complexes , often misrepresenting hospice as an “ extra ” Medicare benefit that pays for nursing visits , hospital beds or other needs .
The pandemic has spun off new schemes , she said , with unscrupulous recruiters now enticing prospects with hand sanitizer , gloves and promises of other COVID-19 “ freebies.
” Many who sign up don ’ t even realize they are in hospice care .
“ They ’ ll say , ‘ No , I ’ m not dying .
I wanted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s what I signed up for , ’ ” Morales said .
In May 2017 , the daughter of an Alzheimer ’ s patient told a state investigator that a marketer for All Seasons Hospice in Paramount signed up her mother with a promise of 24-hour nursing care .
When no one showed up , she called the hospice and was told the only 24-hour service was by phone .
The hospice administrator acknowledged the bogus sales pitch but mostly shrugged it off .
“ It is a dog-eat-dog situation out there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told inspectors , according to a state report that did not name the employee .
“ I have no control over what these marketers say or do .
They do what they want and promise anything to get the patient.
” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid did not respond to specific questions about the extent of hospice fraud , but said in a statement that the agency aggressively seeks to ferret it out .
“ CMS identifies fraud , waste and abuse in hospice services utilizing cutting-edge data analytics , medical review @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ In instances of potential fraud , CMS refers those providers to law enforcement for further criminal investigation and for appropriate administrative actions.
” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ’ Office of Inspector General reported in July 2018 that inappropriate billing and fraud by hospice providers cost taxpayers “ hundreds of millions of dollars , ” but the full extent is unknown .
The watchdog agency declined to comment on the scope of hospice fraud and said it could not provide a count of cases it has investigated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respond to repeated requests for its prosecution numbers .
But according to interviews with hospice providers and industry experts , and a review of law enforcement releases on individual cases , state licensing reports , lawsuits and federal data , fraud is widespread .
“ Hospice fraud remains absolutely rampant in the United States , ” said Mark Schlein , an attorney with the Los Angeles firm Baum Hedlund who specializes in hospice whistleblower lawsuits .
He links the fraud in large part to the industry ’ s unfettered growth .
“ That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hospice companies by federal healthcare programs , ” he said .
“ When Willie Sutton was asked , ‘ Why do you rob banks ?
’ he said , ‘ Because that ’ s where the money is.
’ ” More than two dozen hospices pepper a mile-long stretch of Victory Boulevard , an east-west artery in the San Fernando Valley .
One well-worn office building in the 13600 block in Van Nuys is home to 15 providers .
“ Hospices have been growing like mushrooms around here , ” said one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to give his name for fear of alienating his neighbors in the complex , where monthly rents start at an enticingly low $ 399 .
Scores of others are in neighboring Valley communities , all part of a sprawling regional hotbed of for-profit hospices .
Many are small operations , some purchased as investments by people with little or no healthcare experience .
Since 2010 , the number of providers in Los Angeles County has skyrocketed from 100 to 618 , federal data show .
North Hollywood is home to 35 hospices , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 61 and Van Nuys 63 .
By comparison , New York State and Florida each have fewer than 50 .
With a population of 103,000 , Burbank has a per capita rate of hospices that is nearly 40 times the national average , according to The Times ’ analysis .
“ It makes no sense , ” said Jan Jones , recently retired chief executive officer of the California Hospice Network , a coalition of nonprofit providers .
“ I can ’ t imagine there are 60 hospices in Burbank that are doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t be enough people for 60 hospices there.
” New York , Florida and dozens of other states require prospective hospice owners to obtain a “ certificate of need ” to justify the demand for additional providers before they can get licensed .
California providers must be free of felony convictions , but there are few other qualifications for starting or operating a hospice beyond getting licensed by the state and certified by Medicare , a process that costs only a few thousand dollars .
“ There is not a high-cost entry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unlike a hospital or a nursing home , ” Jones said .
“ I think a lot of people think it is an easy business , which frankly I think is wrong .
It is very complicated and complex , and very important to the people we serve.
” With the explosive growth have come serious quality-of-care issues .
The Times ’ review of more than 800 state licensing and inspection reports revealed instance after instance in which patients were deprived of comforting care because of the actions — or inaction — of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neglected infections , missed nursing visits , incompetent or dishonest home health aides — all were cited among hundreds of violations that required hospices to draw up plans to correct the problems but resulted in little or no disciplinary action .
Patients suffered for lack of pain medication or had maggots crawling out of festering foot sores and head wounds , state inspection records show .
Others died alone because no one from the hospice showed up when needed .
“ We will never heal from that devastation , ” Joyce Craig said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Peter Craig , 74 , a partner in a Los Angeles accounting firm who died of cancer in 2017 .
The California Department of Public Health licenses and regulates hospices to ensure they meet state and federal standards but has limited ability to punish offenders .
The only fines it can impose are for breaches of patient confidentiality .
To qualify for hospice , patients must be certified as terminally ill by their attending physicians , if they have them , and by a hospice doctor .
The certification process is ripe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of federal data showed that California hospices led the nation in violations for enrolling non-terminal patients , logging 57 such deficiencies since 2008 , nearly three-fourths of them in L.A. County .
The next closest states were Georgia and Louisiana with 22 each .
But the actual numbers in California and elsewhere are probably much higher , because of variations in how improper terminal diagnoses are coded and categorized by state inspectors .
At Eleos Hospice in Van Nuys , state officials who sampled five patients ’ records in December 2016 discovered there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ill .
The agency was “ claiming or attempting to claim reimbursement for patients who did not need hospice care and services , ” a licensing report noted .
All five were promptly discharged , but records show no action was taken against the doctor or hospice .
The hospice has changed hands twice since then , according to a new owner who took over in August and said he was unaware of those deficiencies .
Inspectors found a similar scenario when they examined the records of two patients of Orion Hospice Care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The hospice ’ s medical director , in recertifying a patient as terminally ill , wrote that she was experiencing a steady decline in health and appetite and was losing weight .
But that ’ s not what the patient told a state investigator .
“ I did not have pain and my appetite is OK , ” she said , “ and I did not lose any weight.
” In fact , records kept at the board-and-care home where the woman lived showed she had gained seven pounds over the preceding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to comment when asked by inspectors to explain , and the medical director admitted he ’ d never put the woman on a scale , describing a method akin to a guess-your-weight booth at a county fair .
“ I assessed her weight by my own clinical measurement and judgment , not by any actual documented measurement , ” the doctor said , according to a state inspection report .
State inspectors found no records to support either terminal diagnosis , nor do inspection reports reflect any disciplinary action against the doctor or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For a patient at Guiding Light Hospice in Sun Valley , the assessment could not have been bleaker .
The woman was easily fatigued , needed help with feeding , dressing , bathing , toileting , walking , handling money and medications and could speak “ less than six intelligible words per day , ” a state inspection record noted .
She also was incontinent , had a history of falls and was forgetful , disoriented and confused , “ with imminence of death.
” When interviewed by state inspectors , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state licensing report only as Patient 1 , said her only infirmity was some back pain from arthritis .
“ Patient 1 stated she knew she was not ready to die , and laughed while denying she had a terminal diagnosis , and a life expectancy of six months or less , ” according to the report .
The nurse who made the dire , detailed assessments insisted they were accurate , despite all evidence to the contrary .
No disciplinary action was taken , but when inspectors returned for a follow-up 16 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its office .
Karen Alvarez at first gave little thought to the visitors from Ace of Hearts Hospice who showed up at Lancaster ’ s Sierra Retirement Village with armloads of fast food .
After all , the apartment manager said , many of her low-income tenants were grateful for a complimentary meal .
But Alvarez was soon struck by the aggressive tactics of the Ace of Hearts personnel , who took over the lobby every Wednesday and trailed residents back to their units to pitch them on “ free ” hospice care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all billable to taxpayers .
“ You know , hospice people are gentle and talk to you nice .
They are understanding and kind , ” she said .
“ They don ’ t come in swarming like bees , like these people did.
” Few hospices better epitomize the most serious problems that afflict the industry — or underscore the failure of regulators to address them — than Ace of Hearts .
More than a dozen patients were not terminally ill and should never have been enrolled , according to a felony @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a litany of deficiencies .
Based in a small office on Foothill Boulevard in Tujunga , the hospice racked up at least 115 regulatory violations from 2014 to 2016 , second most among the 1,200 California providers over the last decade , federal records show .
Details of the violations fill nearly 200 pages of state inspection reports chronicling mishandled medications , neglected sores and repeated missed visits by nurses and home health aides .
In one patient ’ s case , aides failed to show up for 18 straight visits over a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must have been a computer glitch , ” was how the Ace of Hearts administrator explained it to state inspectors , who found dozens of other missed patient visits .
Ace of Hearts owner Rozanna Avetyan , 42 , who signed the inspection reports as the administrator , did not respond to requests for interviews left with a person at her Stevenson Ranch home and with a woman who answered her cellphone but would not identify herself .
Her attorney , Donald Marks , did not respond to repeated phone and email messages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hospice about $ 450,000 for 29 patients , nearly two-thirds of whom were discharged alive , Medicare data show .
Although hospice patients may be recertified to receive care for more than six months , federal officials say that very long stays and high “ live discharge ” rates are potential indicators of fraud .
Ace of Hearts ’ 62 % live discharge rate in 2016 was nearly six times the national rate that year , according to The Times ’ analysis of Medicare data .
That October , state inspectors could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three of 11 patients sampled .
Some had been admitted by the hospice medical director , who signed certifications electronically , state inspection records show .
The unidentified doctor , whose office was in Palm Springs , more than 100 miles from Tujunga , told state officials he did not recall some of the patients and didn ’ t know how his signature wound up on their certifications .
“ I do not like computers so I do not use them , ” he said , according to a state licensing report .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The improper certifications had serious ramifications : Some non-terminal patients who signed up were stunned to learn they had forfeited their existing medical coverage in the process , the report states .
At least two lost their HMO coverage when they were enrolled in hospice without being told they could refuse .
One was signed up while in an assisted-living facility , the state licensing records show , and the other while residing in a board-and-care home .
“ The HMO won ’ t even see him in the emergency room , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the board-and-care owner told state investigators , according to a state report .
When pressed for an explanation , the report said , the Ace of Hearts administrator blamed the board-and-care owner for referring the man , who developed serious bed sores while in hospice care .
“ I had nothing but trouble with the board-and-care owner , ” the administrator said .
“ Now the patient has multiple wounds .
I told [ his ] caregiver that we don ’ t do wounds here.
” Poor wound care was nowhere more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patient treated by an Ace of Hearts nurse who lacked enough clean gauze to dress a serious foot sore .
“ She picked up the dirty discarded Kerlix dressing that was removed from the wounds that was soiled with a few spots of old red colored discharge and she re-used the old dressing on top of the clean dressing , ” wrote a state inspector who witnessed the violation of infection-control protocols .
It was but one of a long list of serious deficiencies over the years .
“ The cumulative effect of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the hospice agency to ensure the provision of quality healthcare in a safe environment , ” a 2016 inspection report said .
Despite that finding , however , Ace of Hearts continued to operate for three years .
It eventually was undone not by state regulators but by its own weekly free breakfast sales pitch visits to Sierra Retirement Village and the nearby Aurora Village Retirement Center .
Alvarez , the Sierra complex manager , told The Times that two federal agents dropped by one day to grill her about the visits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 300 per patient by Avetyan , who also owned Team Hospice in Lancaster .
“ I wasn ’ t interested in that at all , ” Alvarez , who was not accused of wrongdoing , said of the kickbacks .
“ I said , ‘ No , I have a job , I don ’ t need that.
’ ” Authorities had been tipped off by a county social worker who was surprised that a resident she was visiting had been given a “ hospice bed ” when she was not ill , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California attorney general ’ s office filed fraud charges against Avetyan and four others , alleging that her hospices had billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for $ 1.2 million for ineligible patients .
Avetyan had paid more than $ 180,000 in kickbacks for illegal referrals , some of them by a woman who worked in a doctor ’ s office and gleaned names from the patient roster , prosecutors alleged in a criminal complaint .
A different physician , Dr. Blanca Galapon , now 80 , was accused of falsely certifying a dozen patients @ @ @ @ @ @ @ payments from Avetyan , according to the complaint .
Avetyan pleaded guilty in April 2019 to one count of conspiracy to pay and accept insurance kickbacks and was given a suspended six-month jail sentence and placed on four years ’ probation .
Galapon and other defendants cut plea deals for deferred prosecution or probation .
In January , Avetyan was barred from all federal healthcare programs , including Medicare and Medicaid , for at least five years .
By early this spring , both Ace of Hearts and Team Hospice had closed their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public records indicate that Avetyan sought continued involvement in the hospice industry .
At least five hospices based at one Van Nuys office building appear to have been spun off directly from Ace of Hearts or have significant links to it , The Times found .
Online biographies that list two young women as chief executives of the five hospices describe both as former Ace of Hearts employees .
One of them , Arpine Melikyan , is a 2019 graduate of Cal State Los Angeles who was an Ace of Hearts accountant and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Life Hospice and High Care Hospice .
In a 2019 lawsuit , Avetyan alleged that she agreed to pay Melikyan $ 5,000 a month and provide staffing and other resources in exchange for a 30 % stake in the two hospices .
Melikyan declined to comment on the lawsuit , which accuses her of reneging on the deal .
Avetyan is due back in court on Dec. 16 , accused of violating her probation .
Prosecutors would not provide details , but said in an email to The Times that she continued to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ barred from the program .

Ellie Craig Goldstein holds a pouch containing sentimental items from her brother, Peter Craig. Three years after Peter’s death, his sisters Ellie and Joyce Craig are haunted by the memory of his final hours.
Martin Huff was 67 when he fell off his bicycle, banged up his knee and spent a couple of hours in a Riverside County emergency room before walking out under his own power.
Ten days later he was in hospice care, diagnosed as terminally ill by a small Covina provider of end-of-life services that said he was weak and wasting away, with six months or less to live.
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Five years after that grim prognosis, however, Huff was still very much alive. He testified in federal court that no one from California Hospice Care had ever given him a medical exam before claiming he was dying.
“I really never knew exactly what the deal was on the hospice,” he said.
Huff is among a legion of mostly older Americans targeted for audacious, widespread fraud in an industry meant to provide comforting care in their final days, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
Like Huff, many are unwitting recruits by unscrupulous providers who bill Medicare for hospice services and equipment for “terminally ill” patients who aren’t dying.
Intense competition for new patients — who generate $154 to $1,432 a day each in Medicare payments — has spawned a cottage industry of illegal practices, including kickbacks to crooked doctors and recruiters who zero in on prospective patients at retirement homes and other venues, The Times found.
The exponential boom in providers has transformed end-of-life care that was once the realm of charities and religious groups into a multibillion-dollar business dominated by profit-driven operators.
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Nowhere has that growth been more explosive, and its harmful side effects more evident, than in Los Angeles County.
The county’s hospices have multiplied sixfold in the last decade and now account for more than half of the state’s roughly 1,200 Medicare-certified providers, according to a Times analysis of federal healthcare data.
Scores of providers have sprung up along a corridor stretching west from the San Gabriel Valley, where California Hospice Care was located, through the San Fernando Valley, which now has the highest concentration of hospices in the nation.
“There are too many providers in L.A. County, and too many providers who are in it for the wrong reasons,” said Edo Banach, who heads the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the largest U.S. trade group for hospices. “Folks who go into this for the wrong reason generally do not do a good job.”
Much more than money is at stake.
Some patients who unknowingly enrolled in hospice later discovered they had signed away their rights to lifesaving emergency medical treatment, state inspection records show. Others endured excruciating pain in their final days when providers failed to deliver the comforting care they desperately needed.
Still others suffered the consequences of neglected, festering sores that developed maggots or resulted in hospitalizations.
Privacy laws and government reports that keep the names of patients, doctors and hospice administrators confidential make it difficult to quantify and humanize many of the cases.
But The Times found that since 2008, regulators have cited hospices in California more often than anywhere else in the country for the most serious types of violations, four times as many as states such as Texas and Georgia, which also have large numbers of providers.
Despite those citations, California and federal regulators have rarely fined, suspended or shut down deficient hospices, state reports show. Oversight has been weakened further during the COVID-19 pandemic, as regulators suspended requirements for most hospice inspections and limited the types of complaints they investigate.
California, which has among the lowest barriers to setting up a new hospice, also leads the nation in violations for enrolling patients without medical proof they were terminally ill.
The Times’ analysis revealed that Los Angeles County hospices discharged patients 80% more often than providers nationwide, highlighting a rate that federal authorities say is a red flag for Medicare fraud.
California Hospice Care claimed that Jesse Staten suffered from terminal heart failure when it signed him up for end-of-life treatment. His predicted six months to live expired in 2012, but he didn’t: When The Times contacted him eight years later, he was still going strong.
“I’m hanging in,” said Staten, 75. “I’ve got a lot of issues in my blood and I have other issues, but I can’t complain.”
Federal prosecutors accused California Hospice Care of bilking taxpayers of $7.5 million in illegal payments in connection with Staten, Huff and scores of other ineligible Medicare recipients. The hospice owner and two doctors were sentenced to prison, and several others were convicted or pleaded guilty in the scheme.
Many of the hospice’s patients were addicts lured by the promise of free narcotic painkillers, prosecutors said.
Some were enlisted by a doctor who collected a bounty from the hospice on each, according to his indictment.
One was a 47-year-old woman who lost her place on a waiting list for a liver transplant when she signed up for hospice, which prohibits curative care. It took her months to get reinstated, and she died not long after finally receiving a new organ.
“That’s the last hope, and having that person removed from the liver donor list by placing them in the program is conduct that is hard to understand,” U.S. District Judge S. James Otero said when sentencing a hospice nurse to 18 months in prison. “That’s callous.”
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Conceived as an end-of-life option for terminally ill patients, hospice care properly delivered has been a godsend for millions of dying Americans and their families. It provides palliative care and prescription drugs, nursing services, medical equipment, supplies and spiritual counseling for those given a prognosis of six months or less to live.
The U.S. hospice industry took root in the mid-1970s but flourished only after Medicare began covering its services in 1983. For-profit providers sprang up to meet a growing need that outstripped the capabilities of charities and religious institutions that pioneered end-of-life care.
In the last 20 years, the number of U.S. providers has roughly doubled, while Medicare spending on hospice has grown sixfold, to $19.2 billion a year. More than 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries now receive care from some 5,000 hospices, nearly a quarter of them in California.
“Virtually all of the growth is of for-profit providers, which appear to be crowding out the local nonprofits that established the hospice model and had a desire to maintain its integrity,” said Michael Connors, a long-term care advocate with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.
For-profit operators now make up 70% of all hospices certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and 91% of those in California. In Los Angeles County, they account for 97%.
Many provide excellent care.
Satisfaction surveys reported by hospices nationwide show that more than 80% of respondents rate their hospice as a 9 or 10 out of 10, but in L.A. County that figure drops to 74%. Respondents in L.A. also were less likely to report that hospices always gave them the help they needed.
Most hospice care is provided in patients’ homes, but services also are rendered at stand-alone facilities, nursing homes and assisted-living centers. Regulatory inspections and financial audits are infrequent, making the system a soft target for scammers.
Complaints about shady operators began lighting up the California Senior Medicare Patrol hotline in mid-2017 and have not let up, said Sandy Morales, who oversees the federally funded statewide hotline whose mission is to help Medicare beneficiaries prevent, detect and report fraud.
“It’s all over Southern California: Riverside County, Hemet, Indio, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Bakersfield,” she said. “Right now, it’s huge.”
Since January 2019, her agency has forwarded more than 100 cases of suspected hospice fraud to federal investigators, Morales said. One doctor’s office in Los Angeles County recently reported that 10 patients appeared to have been fraudulently enrolled by a hospice.
Fraudsters stick to a familiar script, enticing or duping Medicare recipients into signing up for services they don’t need, she said. They send recruiters door to door and to churches, food banks, senior centers and apartment complexes, often misrepresenting hospice as an “extra” Medicare benefit that pays for nursing visits, hospital beds or other needs.
‘It makes no sense. I can’t imagine there are 60 hospices in Burbank that are doing it the right way. There can’t be enough people for 60 hospices there.’ — Jan Jones, recently retired CEO of the California Hospice Network
The pandemic has spun off new schemes, she said, with unscrupulous recruiters now enticing prospects with hand sanitizer, gloves and promises of other COVID-19 “freebies.”
Many who sign up don’t even realize they are in hospice care.
“They’ll say, ‘No, I’m not dying. I wanted help with housekeeping and cooking, and that’s what I signed up for,’” Morales said.
In May 2017, the daughter of an Alzheimer’s patient told a state investigator that a marketer for All Seasons Hospice in Paramount signed up her mother with a promise of 24-hour nursing care. When no one showed up, she called the hospice and was told the only 24-hour service was by phone.
The hospice administrator acknowledged the bogus sales pitch but mostly shrugged it off.
“It is a dog-eat-dog situation out there, very competitive,” the administrator told inspectors, according to a state report that did not name the employee. “I have no control over what these marketers say or do. They do what they want and promise anything to get the patient.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not respond to specific questions about the extent of hospice fraud but said in a statement that the agency aggressively seeks to ferret it out.
“CMS identifies fraud, waste and abuse in hospice services utilizing cutting-edge data analytics, medical review and program integrity investigations,” it said. “In instances of potential fraud, CMS refers those providers to law enforcement for further criminal investigation and for appropriate administrative actions.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General reported in July 2018 that inappropriate billing and fraud by hospice providers cost taxpayers “hundreds of millions of dollars,” but the full extent is unknown.
The watchdog agency declined to comment on the scope of hospice fraud and said it could not provide a count of cases it has investigated. The Department of Justice did not respond to repeated requests for its prosecution numbers.
But according to interviews with hospice providers and industry experts, and a review of law enforcement releases on individual cases, state licensing reports, lawsuits and federal data, fraud is widespread.
“Hospice fraud remains absolutely rampant in the United States,” said Mark Schlein, an attorney with the Los Angeles firm Baum Hedlund who specializes in hospice whistleblower lawsuits. He links the fraud in large part to the industry’s unfettered growth.
“That translates into much more money being paid to hospice companies by federal healthcare programs,” he said. “When Willie Sutton was asked, ‘Why do you rob banks?’ he said, ‘Because that’s where the money is.’”
::
More than two dozen hospices pepper a mile-long stretch of Victory Boulevard, an east-west artery in the San Fernando Valley. One well-worn office building in the 13600 block in Van Nuys is home to 15 providers.
“Hospices have been growing like mushrooms around here,” said one of the other tenants, who declined to give his name for fear of alienating his neighbors in the complex, where monthly rents start at an enticingly low $399.
Scores of others are in neighboring Valley communities, all part of a sprawling regional hotbed of for-profit hospices. Many are small operations, some purchased as investments by people with little or no healthcare experience.
Since 2010, the number of providers in Los Angeles County has skyrocketed from 100 to 618, federal data show.
North Hollywood is home to 35 hospices, while Glendale has 60, Burbank has 61 and Van Nuys 63.
By comparison, New York state and Florida both have fewer than 50.
With a population of 103,000, Burbank has a per capita rate of hospices that is nearly 40 times the national average, according to The Times’ analysis.
“It makes no sense,” said Jan Jones, recently retired chief executive officer of the California Hospice Network, a coalition of nonprofit providers. “I can’t imagine there are 60 hospices in Burbank that are doing it the right way. There can’t be enough people for 60 hospices there.”
New York, Florida and dozens of other states require prospective hospice owners to obtain a “certificate of need” to justify the demand for additional providers before they can get licensed.
California providers must be free of felony convictions, but there are few other qualifications for starting or operating a hospice beyond getting licensed by the state and certified by Medicare, a process that costs only a few thousand dollars.
“There is not a high-cost entry point to start a hospice program, unlike a hospital or a nursing home,” Jones said. “I think a lot of people think it is an easy business, which frankly I think is wrong. It is very complicated and complex, and very important to the people we serve.”
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With the explosive growth have come serious quality-of-care issues.
The Times’ review of more than 800 state licensing and inspection reports revealed instance after instance in which patients were deprived of comforting care because of the actions — or inaction — of hospice providers.
Mismanaged pain medications, neglected infections, missed nursing visits, incompetent or dishonest home health aides — all were cited among hundreds of violations that required hospices to draw up plans to correct the problems but resulted in little or no disciplinary action.
Ellie Craig Goldstein holds a photo of her brother, Peter Craig, and sister, Joyce Craig. The sisters say they were traumatized when no one from hospice came during his final hours. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Patients suffered for lack of pain medication or had maggots crawling out of festering foot sores and head wounds, state inspection records show. Others died alone or without the help they needed because no one from the hospice showed up in their final hours.
“We will never heal from that devastation,” Joyce Craig said of the final moments of her brother, Peter Craig, 74, a partner in a Los Angeles accounting firm who died of cancer in 2017.
The California Department of Public Health licenses and regulates hospices to ensure they meet state and federal standards but has limited ability to punish offenders. The only fines it can impose are for breaches of patient confidentiality.
To qualify for hospice, patients must be certified as terminally ill by their attending physicians, if they have them, and by a hospice doctor. The certification process is ripe for fraud.
The Times’ analysis of federal data showed that California hospices led the nation in violations for enrolling nonterminal patients, logging 57 such deficiencies since 2008, nearly three-fourths of them in L.A. County.
The next closest states were Georgia and Louisiana with 22 each. But the actual numbers in California and elsewhere are probably much higher because of variations in how improper terminal diagnoses are coded and categorized by state inspectors.
At Eleos Hospice in Van Nuys, state officials who sampled five patients’ records in December 2016 discovered no evidence that any were terminally ill. The agency was “claiming or attempting to claim reimbursement for patients who did not need hospice care and services,” a licensing report noted.
All five were promptly discharged, but records show no action was taken against the doctor or hospice. The hospice has changed hands twice since then, according to a new owner who took over in August and said he was unaware of those deficiencies.
Inspectors found a similar scenario when they examined the records of two patients of Orion Hospice Care Services in Valley Village in November 2018.
The hospice’s medical director, in recertifying a patient as terminally ill, wrote that she was experiencing a steady decline in health and appetite and was losing weight. But that’s not what the patient told a state investigator.
“I did not have pain and my appetite is OK,” she said, “and I did not lose any weight.”
In fact, records kept at the board-and-care home where the woman lived showed she had gained 7 pounds over the preceding three months.
The hospice administrator declined to comment when asked by inspectors to explain, and the medical director admitted he’d never put the woman on a scale, describing a method akin to a guess-your-weight booth at a county fair.
“I assessed her weight by my own clinical measurement and judgment, not by any actual documented measurement,” the doctor said, according to a state inspection report.
State inspectors found no records to support either terminal diagnosis, nor do inspection reports reflect any disciplinary action against the doctor or hospice beyond requiring a corrective action plan.
For a patient at Guiding Light Hospice in Sun Valley, the assessment could not have been bleaker.
The woman was easily fatigued; needed help with feeding, dressing, bathing, toileting, walking, handling money and taking medications; and could speak “less than six intelligible words per day,” a state inspection record noted. She also was incontinent, had a history of falls and was forgetful, disoriented and confused, “with imminence of death.”
When interviewed by state inspectors, however, the woman, identified in a state licensing report only as Patient 1, said her only infirmity was some back pain from arthritis.
“Patient 1 stated she knew she was not ready to die, and laughed while denying she had a terminal diagnosis, and a life expectancy of six months or less,” according to the report.
The nurse who made the dire, detailed assessments insisted they were accurate, despite all evidence to the contrary. No disciplinary action was taken, but when inspectors returned for a follow-up 16 months later, Guiding Light had closed its office.
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This office building in the San Fernando Valley is home to several hospice providers. Since 2010, the number of providers in Los Angeles County has skyrocketed from 100 to 618, Medicare data show. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Karen Alvarez at first gave little thought to the visitors from Ace of Hearts Hospice who showed up at Lancaster’s Sierra Retirement Village with armloads of fast food. After all, the apartment manager said, many of her low-income tenants were grateful for a complimentary meal.
But Alvarez was soon struck by the aggressive tactics of the Ace of Hearts personnel, who took over the lobby every Wednesday and trailed residents back to their units to pitch them on “free” hospice care, hospital beds and motorized scooters, all billable to taxpayers.
“You know, hospice people are gentle and talk to you nice. They are understanding and kind,” she said. “They don’t come in swarming like bees, like these people did.”
Few hospices better epitomize the most serious problems that afflict the industry — or underscore the failure of regulators to address them — than Ace of Hearts.
More than a dozen patients were not terminally ill and should never have been enrolled, according to a felony criminal complaint and state reports that detail a litany of deficiencies.
Based in a small office on Foothill Boulevard in Tujunga, the hospice racked up at least 115 regulatory violations from 2014 to 2016, second most among the 1,200 California providers over the last decade, federal records show.
Details of the violations fill nearly 200 pages of state inspection reports chronicling mishandled medications, neglected sores and repeated missed visits by nurses and home health aides.
In one patient’s case, aides failed to show up for 18 straight visits over a span of several months.
“It must have been a computer glitch,” was how the Ace of Hearts administrator explained it to state inspectors, who found dozens of other missed patient visits.
Ace of Hearts owner Rozanna Avetyan, 42, who signed the inspection reports as the administrator, did not respond to requests for interviews left with a person at her Stevenson Ranch home and with a woman who answered her cellphone but would not identify herself.
Her attorney, Donald Marks, did not respond to repeated phone and email messages.
In 2016, the government paid the hospice about $450,000 for 29 patients, nearly two-thirds of whom were discharged alive, Medicare data show. Although hospice patients may be recertified to receive care for more than six months, federal officials say that very long stays and high “live discharge” rates are potential indicators of fraud.
Ace of Hearts’ 62% live discharge rate in 2016 was nearly six times the national rate that year, according to The Times’ analysis of Medicare data.
That October, state inspectors could find no evidence of terminal illness for three of 11 patients sampled. Some had been admitted by the hospice medical director, who signed certifications electronically, state inspection records show.
The unidentified doctor, whose office was in Palm Springs, more than 100 miles from Tujunga, told state officials he did not recall some of the patients and didn’t know how his signature wound up on their certifications.
“I do not like computers so I do not use them,” he said, according to a state licensing report. “I did not sign anything electronically.”
The improper certifications had serious ramifications: Some nonterminal patients who signed up were stunned to learn they had forfeited their existing medical coverage in the process, the report states.
At least two lost their HMO coverage when they were enrolled in hospice without being told they could refuse. One was signed up while in an assisted-living facility, the state licensing records show, and the other while residing in a board-and-care home.
“The HMO won’t even see him in the emergency room, and he does not understand it,” the board-and-care owner told state investigators, according to a state report.
When pressed for an explanation, the report said, the Ace of Hearts administrator blamed the board-and-care owner for referring the man, who developed serious bed sores while in hospice care.
“I had nothing but trouble with the board-and-care owner,” the administrator said. “Now the patient has multiple wounds. I told [his] caregiver that we don’t do wounds here.”
Poor wound care was nowhere more evident than in the case of one patient treated by an Ace of Hearts nurse who lacked enough clean gauze to dress a serious foot sore.
“She picked up the dirty discarded Kerlix dressing that was removed from the wounds that was soiled with a few spots of old red colored discharge and she re-used the old dressing on top of the clean dressing,” wrote a state inspector who witnessed the violation of infection-control protocols.
It was but one of a long list of serious deficiencies over the years.
“The cumulative effect of these systemic practices resulted in the failure of the hospice agency to ensure the provision of quality healthcare in a safe environment,” a 2016 inspection report said.
Despite that finding, however, Ace of Hearts continued to operate for three years. It eventually was undone not by state regulators but by its own weekly free-breakfast sales-pitch visits to Sierra Retirement Village and the nearby Aurora Village Retirement Center.
Alvarez, the Sierra complex manager, told The Times that two federal agents dropped by one day to grill her about the visits and kickback offers of up to $300 per patient by Avetyan, who also owned Team Hospice in Lancaster.
“I wasn’t interested in that at all,” Alvarez, who was not accused of wrongdoing, said of the kickbacks. “I said, ‘No, I have a job, I don’t need that.’”
Authorities had been tipped off by a county social worker who was surprised that a resident she was visiting had been given a “hospice bed” when she was not ill, Alvarez said.
In 2018, the California attorney general’s office filed fraud charges against Avetyan and four others, alleging that her hospices had billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for $1.2 million for ineligible patients.
Avetyan had paid more than $180,000 in kickbacks for illegal referrals, some of them by a woman who worked in a doctor’s office and gleaned names from the patient roster, prosecutors alleged in a criminal complaint.
A different physician, Dr. Blanca Galapon, now 80, was accused of falsely certifying a dozen patients as terminally ill in exchange for unspecified payments from Avetyan, according to the complaint.
Avetyan pleaded guilty in April 2019 to one count of conspiracy to pay and accept insurance kickbacks and was given a suspended six-month jail sentence and placed on four years’ probation.
Galapon and other defendants cut plea deals for deferred prosecution or probation.
In January, Avetyan was barred from all federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, for at least five years. By early this spring, both Ace of Hearts and Team Hospice had closed their offices.
But court documents and other public records indicate that Avetyan sought continued involvement in the hospice industry.
At least five hospices based at one Van Nuys office building appear to have been spun off directly from Ace of Hearts or have significant links to it, The Times found. Online biographies that list two young women as chief executives of the five hospices describe both as former Ace of Hearts employees.
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One of them, Arpine Melikyan, is a 2019 graduate of Cal State L.A. who was an Ace of Hearts accountant and now heads up two other providers, Life Hospice and High Care Hospice.
In a 2019 lawsuit, Avetyan alleged that she agreed to pay Melikyan $5,000 a month and provide staffing and other resources in exchange for a 30% stake in the two hospices. Melikyan declined to comment on the lawsuit, which accuses her of reneging on the deal.
Avetyan is due back in court Dec. 16, accused of violating her probation.
Prosecutors would not provide details but said in an email to The Times that she continued to bill Medi-Cal for hospice services after being barred from the program.


latimes--2020-12-09--What you need to know if you or a loved one requires end-of-life care

Conceived as an end-of-life option for terminally ill patients , hospices provide palliative care , medications , nursing services and counseling for those diagnosed with six months or less to live .
The number of U.S. hospices has roughly doubled in the last 20 years , as more for-profit providers vie for a share of $ 19.2 billion a year in Medicare spending that covers hospice care .
More than 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries now receive care from some 5,000 hospices , nearly a quarter of them in California .
While hospice has been a godsend for millions of dying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigation found that intense competition for new patients has spurred billing fraud and other illegal practices , including falsified diagnoses and kickbacks to unscrupulous doctors and recruiters who target prospective patients at retirement homes and other venues .
The Times also found hundreds of instances in which California hospice patients were harmed , neglected or put at serious risk , their mistreatment sometimes exacerbated by serious gaps in government oversight .
What are the benefits of hospice care ?
Hospice is intended to provide comforting , compassionate care and a range of support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ families .
In addition to nursing and medical care that includes pain management , prescription drugs and supplies , patients receive spiritual and emotional support , help with personal hygiene and respite care for family caregivers .
Most hospice patients receive care in their homes , including assisted-living settings and nursing facilities .
There ’ s no set formula for choosing a hospice , although experts suggest discussing options with your personal physician and seeking recommendations from friends and relatives whose loved ones have had good experiences .
You should also interview any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ licensing , which is required by the California Department of Public Health ; whether it is certified by Medicare ; when it was last inspected and whether violations were found ; the range of available services ; the makeup of the hospice care team and the roles of its doctors , nurses and others ; and the role the hospice expects family members to play in a patient ’ s care plan .
Several industry and advocacy groups offer online guidance , including the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization , which provides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
How do I know if a hospice is reliable ?
There is no one place where consumers can go to make a comprehensive comparison of local hospices — a gap that patient rights advocates have long criticized .
A variety of online sources provide information about hospice care , but each has limitations .
Medicare ’ s hospice compare site allows consumers to search for providers by ZIP Code or name , but has scant information about quality-of-care issues and inspections .
The California Department of Public Health has a searchable tool @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provides users with inspection reports when serious violations are uncovered back to 2017 .
It also allows consumers to compare quality metrics of up to three hospices at a time , but it doesn ’ t provide a rating system for providers .
The results of inspections by accrediting agencies are not included on the site — a significant problem for consumers in California , where more than 80 % of hospices contract with accrediting agencies rather than the state to conduct certification inspections once every three years .
Another resource that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ site maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services .
The site includes copies of complaint investigations and a look-up function that allows users to compare the number of serious violations at hospices in California and other states .
What red flags should I look for ?
Be on the lookout for any hospices that have been cited in recent years with serious violations .
In the language used by Medicare , these include “ condition-level ” deficiencies or “ immediate jeopardy ” situations , which are considered the most severe .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ failing to certify that patients are terminally ill , which is an indication of possible fraud .
If you have the name of a hospice administrator , which can be found on the state public health department ’ s website , you can find out if that person has been excluded from receiving federal healthcare payments on a site run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ’ Office of Inspector General .
If I ’ m not happy about my hospice , where do I complain ?
If you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hospice , the California Department of Public Health investigates complaints , which can be filed online — but not necessarily with satisfying results .
You may also file a complaint about Medicare providers directly with the federal agency or with the California Senior Medicare Patrol , a federally funded statewide hotline to help Medicare beneficiaries prevent , detect and report fraud .

An office building on Victory Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley is home to several hospice providers.
Conceived as an end-of-life option for terminally ill patients, hospices provide palliative care, medications, nursing services and counseling for those diagnosed with six months or less to live.
The number of U.S. hospices has roughly doubled in the last 20 years, as more for-profit providers vie for a share of $19.2 billion a year in Medicare spending that covers hospice care. More than 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries now receive care from some 5,000 hospices, nearly a quarter of them in California.
While hospice has been a godsend for millions of dying Americans and their families, a Times investigation found that intense competition for new patients has spurred billing fraud and other illegal practices, including falsified diagnoses and kickbacks to unscrupulous doctors and recruiters who target prospective patients at retirement homes and other venues.
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The Times also found hundreds of instances in which California hospice patients were harmed, neglected or put at serious risk, their mistreatment sometimes exacerbated by serious gaps in government oversight.
What are the benefits of hospice care?
Hospice is intended to provide comforting, compassionate care and a range of support services for terminally ill patients and their families. In addition to nursing and medical care that includes pain management, prescription drugs and supplies, patients receive spiritual and emotional support, help with personal hygiene and respite care for family caregivers.
Most hospice patients receive care in their homes, including assisted-living settings and nursing facilities.
How do I choose a hospice?
There’s no set formula for choosing a hospice, although experts suggest discussing options with your personal physician and seeking recommendations from friends and relatives whose loved ones have had good experiences.
You should also interview any prospective hospice, asking questions about its licensing, which is required by the California Department of Public Health; whether it is certified by Medicare; when it was last inspected and whether violations were found; the range of available services; the makeup of the hospice care team and the roles of its doctors, nurses and others; and the role the hospice expects family members to play in a patient’s care plan.
Several industry and advocacy groups offer online guidance, including the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, which provides a worksheet and a list of questions.
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How do I know if a hospice is reliable?
There is no one place where consumers can go to make a comprehensive comparison of local hospices — a gap that patient rights advocates have long criticized.
A variety of online sources provide information about hospice care, but each has limitations. Medicare’s hospice comparison site allows consumers to search for providers by ZIP Code or name, but has scant information about quality-of-care issues and inspections.
The California Department of Public Health has a searchable tool called Cal Health Find Database, which provides users with inspection reports when serious violations are uncovered back to 2017. It also allows consumers to compare quality metrics of up to three hospices at a time, but it doesn’t provide a rating system for providers. The results of inspections by accrediting agencies are not included on the site — a significant problem for consumers in California, where more than 80% of hospices contract with accrediting agencies rather than the state to conduct certification inspections once every three years.
Another resource that is more difficult to navigate is an interactive site maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The site includes copies of complaint investigations and a look-up function that allows users to compare the number of serious violations at hospices in California and other states.
What red flags should I look for?
Be on the lookout for any hospices that have been cited in recent years with serious violations. In the language used by Medicare, these include “condition-level” deficiencies or “immediate jeopardy” situations, which are considered the most severe. Also, hospices can be cited for failing to certify that patients are terminally ill, which is an indication of possible fraud.
If you have the name of a hospice administrator, which can be found on the state public health department’s website, you can find out if that person has been excluded from receiving federal healthcare payments on a site run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.
If I’m not happy about my hospice, where do I complain?
If you can’t resolve your issues with the hospice, the California Department of Public Health investigates complaints, which can be filed online — but not necessarily with satisfying results.
You may also file a complaint about Medicare providers directly with the federal agency or with the California Senior Medicare Patrol, a federally funded statewide hotline to help Medicare beneficiaries prevent, detect and report fraud.


latimes--2020-12-09--Get ready for another roaring '20s, UCLA economic forecast predicts

You may be shut inside your home .
You may be out working a job but in fear of contracting the coronavirus .
You may be mourning the demise of your neighborhood ’ s small businesses .
You may be unemployed and unable to pay your rent .
And for the next few months , the situation may grow even worse .
But then get ready for the roaring ’ 20s .
UCLA economists issued an optimistic forecast Wednesday , predicting the U.S. economy will experience “ a gloomy COVID winter and an exuberant vaccine spring , ” followed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The ’ 20s will be roaring , but with several months of hardship first , ” according to the quarterly UCLA Anderson forecast .
“ These next few months will be dire , with rising COVID infections , continued social distancing , and the expiration of social assistance programs.
” The forecast , which assumes mass vaccination of Americans will take place by summer , predicts that annualized growth in the nation ’ s gross domestic product will accelerate from a weak 1.2 % in the current quarter to 1.8 % in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a booming 6 % in next year ’ s second quarter and consistent 3 % growth each quarter thereafter into 2023 .
“ With a vaccine and the release of pent-up demand , the next few years will be roaring as the economy accelerates and returns to previous growth trends , ” wrote Leo Feler , a senior economist with the forecast .
“ We expect a surge in services consumption and continued strength in housing markets to propel the economy forward.
” California ’ s recovery will ultimately look similar to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In October , the state ’ s unemployment rate was 9.3 % , considerably higher than the national rate of 6.9 % , and probably influenced by a loss of international tourism and tighter restrictions on businesses than in many other parts of the country .
But “ the state is due to grow faster than the U.S. once restrictions are lifted and the pandemic is in the rearview mirror , ” wrote economists Jerry Nickelsburg and Leila Bengali , authors of the California section of the report .
California joblessness will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quarter of this year to 6.9 % in 2021 , 5.2 % in 2022 and 4.4 % in 2023 , according to the forecast .
That ’ s still higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 3.9 % in February .
Nonfarm payrolls will drop 6.8 % this year and then — boosted by technology , residential construction and logistics jobs — will grow 3.6 % next year , 3.8 % in 2022 and 2.5 % in 2023 , the forecast predicts .
But the tourist-dependent leisure and hospitality sector , which bore the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the last year , could remain 20 % below its January 2020 peak even by the end of 2023 , according to the forecast , as travelers remain concerned about safety and consumers feel pinched by the income lost during the pandemic .
“ That translates to 200,000 relatively low-income Californians with long-term unemployment for 30 months following the end of the pandemic , ” Nickelsburg and Bengali wrote .
Meanwhile , the report says , national “ headline numbers don ’ t capture the economic misery that so many are experiencing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receiving some form of unemployment insurance benefit .
Nearly 9 % of Americans live in households that are not current on rent or mortgage , 12 % live in households where there was either sometimes or often not enough food to eat , and about one-third live in households where it has been somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses during the pandemic.
” The pandemic has contributed to inequality , Feler wrote .
“ For those fortunate to maintain employment and income during this pandemic , their financial situation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have increased , equity values have increased , and limited consumption opportunities during the past nine months mean that these households have been able to accumulate at least an additional $ 1.6 trillion in savings.
” UCLA economists ’ assumption of mass vaccination by mid-2021 conforms with the expectations of many health experts .
But health experts caution that it is too soon to be sure sufficient doses will be available , enough people will take them to achieve herd immunity , or that they ’ ll offer enough protection to let life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic .
Officials caution that face masks , physical distancing and other restrictions will need to remain in place for some time even after vaccines are rolled out .
Meanwhile , the virus is rapidly spreading .
In the week that ended Tuesday , California averaged 22,220 new coronavirus cases a day — up 78 % from two weeks earlier , according to The Times ’ tally of infections .
On Monday , as the effect of a “ Thanksgiving bump ” took hold , a record 34,490 new cases were reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that hospital intensive care units will soon be overwhelmed , have ratcheted up restrictions on businesses .
On the economic front , it remains uncertain whether Congress will soon approve a stimulus package large enough to revive a wounded labor market , sustain devastated small businesses and buoy state and local governments .
Without additional fiscal relief , the economy may stay in recession next quarter , Feler suggested .
Even if federal relief comes through , economists are divided on how fast the overall economy can bounce back .
UCLA forecasters “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaccine , ” said Scott Anderson , chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco .
“ Everything has to go right with production , distribution and consumer demand to get the vast majority of the population vaccinated in the second quarter of next year .
Even by the third quarter is somewhat optimistic.
” Anderson sees as “ unlikely ” UCLA ’ s expectation of 1.8 % GDP growth in the first quarter of next year and 6 % in the second quarter .
His calculations : 1.3 % and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hangover from business shutdowns and layoffs will hit household spending the hardest after the holidays , ” he said .
Anderson agreed that “ tech , residential construction , and logistics will drive faster California growth , but I ’ m not as confident those ebullient trends will continue beyond the initial pent-up demand .
California leisure and hospitality , tourism and international-trade-focused industries will continue to struggle.
” Based on a lack of supply , low mortgage rates and high demand among millennials , Nickelsburg and Bengali predicted a “ relatively rapid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with 123,000 new units next year , a 16.2 % jump over 2020 , and gradual growth to 132,000 in 2023 .
However , they wrote , that ’ s far fewer units than would be needed to fix the state ’ s housing affordability problem just by building .
That dearth of affordable housing “ along with wildfires , power shutoffs and the working-from-home trend could push more folks to move out of the state even if their employers remain , ” Anderson suggested .
Even if the state builds more homes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon , according to the UCLA forecast .
“ If the higher rates of working-from-home and online shopping persist to a moderate extent after the pandemic is over , we ’ ll be over-supplied on office and retail space , ” Feler wrote .
“ There will be little demand for additional commercial investment , at least in urban cores .
State and local construction is likely to take a hit as state and local governments reduce infrastructure budgets in response to lower tax revenues and the need to replenish rainy-day funds.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the UCLA forecast predicts , “ for better and worse , some parts of the economy will never be the same.
” On the upside : The pandemic has speeded up adoption of online courses and telehealth , making education and healthcare more accessible .
The downside : “ It has permanently eliminated many service and retail sector jobs and made the economy more unequal .
”

Travelers wait in a Los Angeles International Airport terminal. As tourists continue to worry about safety, employment in California’s leisure and hospitality sector could remain 20% below its 2020 peak even by the end of 2023, according to a UCLA forecast.
You may be shut inside your home. You may be out working a job but in fear of contracting the coronavirus. You may be mourning the demise of your neighborhood’s small businesses. You may be unemployed and unable to pay your rent.
And for the next few months, the situation may grow even worse.
But then get ready for the roaring ’20s.
UCLA economists issued an optimistic forecast Wednesday, predicting the U.S. economy will experience “a gloomy COVID winter and an exuberant vaccine spring,” followed by robust growth for some years.
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“The ’20s will be roaring, but with several months of hardship first,” according to the quarterly UCLA Anderson forecast. “These next few months will be dire, with rising COVID infections, continued social distancing, and the expiration of social assistance programs.”
The forecast, which assumes mass vaccination of Americans will take place by summer, predicts that annualized growth in the nation’s gross domestic product will accelerate from a weak 1.2% in the current quarter to 1.8% in the first quarter of next year, then to a booming 6% in next year’s second quarter and consistent 3% growth each quarter thereafter into 2023.
“With a vaccine and the release of pent-up demand, the next few years will be roaring as the economy accelerates and returns to previous growth trends,” wrote Leo Feler, a senior economist with the forecast. “We expect a surge in services consumption and continued strength in housing markets to propel the economy forward.”
California’s recovery will ultimately look similar to the U.S. trajectory, the forecast predicts. In October, the state’s unemployment rate was 9.3%, considerably higher than the national rate of 6.9%, and probably influenced by a loss of international tourism and tighter restrictions on businesses than in many other parts of the country.
But “the state is due to grow faster than the U.S. once restrictions are lifted and the pandemic is in the rearview mirror,” wrote economists Jerry Nickelsburg and Leila Bengali, authors of the California section of the report.
California joblessness will drop from 8.9% in the last quarter of this year to 6.9% in 2021, 5.2% in 2022 and 4.4% in 2023, according to the forecast. That’s still higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 3.9% in February.
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Nonfarm payrolls will drop 6.8% this year and then — boosted by technology, residential construction and logistics jobs — will grow 3.6% next year, 3.8% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2023, the forecast predicts.
But the tourist-dependent leisure and hospitality sector, which bore the brunt of California’s 1.37-million-job loss over the last year, could remain 20% below its January 2020 peak even by the end of 2023, according to the forecast, as travelers remain concerned about safety and consumers feel pinched by the income lost during the pandemic.
“That translates to 200,000 relatively low-income Californians with long-term unemployment for 30 months following the end of the pandemic,” Nickelsburg and Bengali wrote.
Meanwhile, the report says, national “headline numbers don’t capture the economic misery that so many are experiencing. Currently, 20.5 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment insurance benefit. Nearly 9% of Americans live in households that are not current on rent or mortgage, 12% live in households where there was either sometimes or often not enough food to eat, and about one-third live in households where it has been somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses during the pandemic.”
The pandemic has contributed to inequality, Feler wrote. “For those fortunate to maintain employment and income during this pandemic, their financial situation is better than before. Home values have increased, equity values have increased, and limited consumption opportunities during the past nine months mean that these households have been able to accumulate at least an additional $1.6 trillion in savings.”
UCLA economists’ assumption of mass vaccination by mid-2021 conforms with the expectations of many health experts. But health experts caution that it is too soon to be sure sufficient doses will be available, enough people will take them to achieve herd immunity, or that they’ll offer enough protection to let life return to the way it was before the pandemic.
Officials caution that face masks, physical distancing and other restrictions will need to remain in place for some time even after vaccines are rolled out. Meanwhile, the virus is rapidly spreading.
In the week that ended Tuesday, California averaged 22,220 new coronavirus cases a day — up 78% from two weeks earlier, according to The Times’ tally of infections. On Monday, as the effect of a “Thanksgiving bump” took hold, a record 34,490 new cases were reported. State and local officials, fearing that hospital intensive care units will soon be overwhelmed, have ratcheted up restrictions on businesses.
On the economic front, it remains uncertain whether Congress will soon approve a stimulus package large enough to revive a wounded labor market, sustain devastated small businesses and buoy state and local governments. Without additional fiscal relief, the economy may stay in recession next quarter, Feler suggested.
Even if federal relief comes through, economists are divided on how fast the overall economy can bounce back.
UCLA forecasters “make some pretty strong assumptions around the vaccine,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco. “Everything has to go right with production, distribution and consumer demand to get the vast majority of the population vaccinated in the second quarter of next year. Even by the third quarter is somewhat optimistic.”
Anderson sees as “unlikely” UCLA’s expectation of 1.8% GDP growth in the first quarter of next year and 6% in the second quarter. His calculations: 1.3% and 2.6%, respectively. “The hangover from business shutdowns and layoffs will hit household spending the hardest after the holidays,” he said.
Anderson agreed that “tech, residential construction, and logistics will drive faster California growth, but I’m not as confident those ebullient trends will continue beyond the initial pent-up demand. California leisure and hospitality, tourism and international-trade-focused industries will continue to struggle.”
Based on a lack of supply, low mortgage rates and high demand among millennials, Nickelsburg and Bengali predicted a “relatively rapid return of home building” in California with 123,000 new units next year, a 16.2% jump over 2020, and gradual growth to 132,000 in 2023. However, they wrote, that’s far fewer units than would be needed to fix the state’s housing affordability problem just by building.
That dearth of affordable housing “along with wildfires, power shutoffs and the working-from-home trend could push more folks to move out of the state even if their employers remain,” Anderson suggested.
Even if the state builds more homes, commercial construction is unlikely to revive soon, according to the UCLA forecast.
“If the higher rates of working-from-home and online shopping persist to a moderate extent after the pandemic is over, we’ll be over-supplied on office and retail space,” Feler wrote.
“There will be little demand for additional commercial investment, at least in urban cores. State and local construction is likely to take a hit as state and local governments reduce infrastructure budgets in response to lower tax revenues and the need to replenish rainy-day funds.”
Even after a vaccine takes hold, the UCLA forecast predicts, “for better and worse, some parts of the economy will never be the same.”
On the upside: The pandemic has speeded up adoption of online courses and telehealth, making education and healthcare more accessible. The downside: “It has permanently eliminated many service and retail sector jobs and made the economy more unequal.”


latimes--2020-12-08--Gascón drops charges against protestor accused of train-wrecking attempt

Newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón on Tuesday dropped all charges against a protestor accused of attempting to wreck a train at the scene of a demonstration against the Sheriff ’ s Department .
Attorneys for the protestor — Emanuel Padilla , a 34-year-old toy designer from Hawthorne — had claimed that the L.A. County Sheriff ’ s Department and the district attorney ’ s office under former head Jackie Lacey had trumped up the charges and that the department was retaliating for Padilla ’ s activism .
Gascón directed a prosecutor to dismiss all charges against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to Max Szabo , a spokesman for Gascón ’ s transition team .
A different deputy district attorney ultimately stood in during a brief dismissal hearing late Tuesday in the Compton courthouse , Szabo said .
Szabo declined to comment further on the prosecutor ’ s refusal to dismiss the charges , saying it was a personnel matter .
Padilla was charged last month with one felony count of a train-wrecking attempt , which carries a maximum sentence of life without parole , and one felony count of unlawful obstruction of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guilty and been denied bail .
The sheriff ’ s department alleged that the incident occurred Nov. 15 at the intersection of Compton Boulevard and Willlowbrook Avenue in Compton — the location of a largely peaceful protest organized to urge justice for Andres Guardado , an 18-year-old killed this summer by a sheriff ’ s deputy in Gardena .
Prosecutors under Lacey , whom Gascón replaced after winning the November election , had accused Padilla of helping to drag a metal cable across train tracks near the intersection , shortly before railroad crossing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , indicating that a train was coming .
Padilla was arrested three days after the incident , shortly after a small , peaceful protest near the home of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva at which demonstrators called for the release of the names of deputies involved in the recent fatal shootings of Dijon Kizzee and Fred Williams III .
The Sheriff ’ s Department has declined to say why Padilla was not arrested on the spot .
Padilla is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit claiming that the Sheriff ’ s Department engaged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force at racial justice protests this summer .
Gascón ’ s decision “ signifies that we were 100 % correct that Emanuel was targeted for being a protestor and being a vocal protestor , ” said Yoni Hagos , Padilla ’ s co-counsel , of the dismissal of charges .
The Sheriff ’ s Department said it disagreed with the decision to drop the case .
“ The Department is disappointed and perplexed that the charges were dropped , despite clear factual evidence and a lawful arrest for actions which jeopardized the lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lt. John Satterfield said in a statement Tuesday .
A Thanksgiving potluck dinner outside Men ’ s Central Jail in support of Padilla was shut down when dozens of deputies in riot gear appeared .
Several deputies were filmed with duct tape covering their name tags .
After the incident , Villanueva announced a change in department policy to allow deputies to hide their name tags to prevent protesters from posting the deputies ’ personal information on social media .

Emanuel Padilla was arrested following a protest last month outside Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s home in La Habra Heights.
Newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón on Tuesday dropped all charges against a protestor accused of attempting to wreck a train at the scene of a demonstration against the Sheriff’s Department.
Attorneys for the protestor — Emanuel Padilla, a 34-year-old toy designer from Hawthorne — had claimed that the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office under former head Jackie Lacey had trumped up the charges and that the department was retaliating for Padilla’s activism.
Gascón directed a prosecutor to dismiss all charges against Padilla, but the prosecutor refused, according to Max Szabo, a spokesman for Gascón’s transition team. A different deputy district attorney ultimately stood in during a brief dismissal hearing late Tuesday in the Compton courthouse, Szabo said.
Szabo declined to comment further on the prosecutor’s refusal to dismiss the charges, saying it was a personnel matter.
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Padilla was charged last month with one felony count of a train-wrecking attempt, which carries a maximum sentence of life without parole, and one felony count of unlawful obstruction of a railroad track. He had pleaded not guilty and been denied bail.
The sheriff’s department alleged that the incident occurred Nov. 15 at the intersection of Compton Boulevard and Willlowbrook Avenue in Compton — the location of a largely peaceful protest organized to urge justice for Andres Guardado, an 18-year-old killed this summer by a sheriff’s deputy in Gardena.
Prosecutors under Lacey, whom Gascón replaced after winning the November election, had accused Padilla of helping to drag a metal cable across train tracks near the intersection, shortly before railroad crossing signals lit up and an alarm sounded, indicating that a train was coming.
Padilla was arrested three days after the incident, shortly after a small, peaceful protest near the home of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva at which demonstrators called for the release of the names of deputies involved in the recent fatal shootings of Dijon Kizzee and Fred Williams III. The Sheriff’s Department has declined to say why Padilla was not arrested on the spot.
Padilla is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit claiming that the Sheriff’s Department engaged in unlawful arrests and excessive use of force at racial justice protests this summer.
Gascón’s decision “signifies that we were 100% correct that Emanuel was targeted for being a protestor and being a vocal protestor,” said Yoni Hagos, Padilla’s co-counsel, of the dismissal of charges.
The Sheriff’s Department said it disagreed with the decision to drop the case.
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“The Department is disappointed and perplexed that the charges were dropped, despite clear factual evidence and a lawful arrest for actions which jeopardized the lives of our community members,” spokesman Lt. John Satterfield said in a statement Tuesday.
A Thanksgiving potluck dinner outside Men’s Central Jail in support of Padilla was shut down when dozens of deputies in riot gear appeared. Several deputies were filmed with duct tape covering their name tags.
After the incident, Villanueva announced a change in department policy to allow deputies to hide their name tags to prevent protesters from posting the deputies’ personal information on social media.


latimes--2020-12-08--Facing a huge budget gap, L.A. takes a first step toward cutting hundreds of city jobs

The Los Angeles City Council made its first move Tuesday toward eliminating hundreds of jobs at the Police Department and other city agencies , while stopping short of a more sweeping plan that would have targeted nearly 1,900 workers .
Facing a projected $ 675-million deficit , council members agreed to seek new employee furloughs , drain much of the city ’ s reserve and borrow $ 150 million to cover the cost of ongoing operations .
But they scaled back the portion of the budget-balancing plan devoted to job cuts , identifying 843 positions — three-fourths of them at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other cost savings can not be found .
The package of budget-balancing measures , which passed on a 13-2 vote , decreased the number of positions targeted at the LAPD from 1,679 to 628 — 355 officers and 273 civilians .
Councilmen Joe Buscaino and John Lee voted against the proposals , saying they do not want any LAPD jobs to be contemplated for layoffs .
Tuesday ’ s decision means that LAPD Chief Michel Moore and top managers in the city attorney ’ s office , the Animal Services Department and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and submit lists of possible layoffs to personnel officials by Jan. 11 , city budget analysts said .
Budget officials said the job cuts could be averted if department heads find new ways to cut expenses , the city receives a new federal aid package or elected officials secure another source of funding , such as concessions from public employee unions .
Even when a position is eliminated , a layoff could be avoided if that employee is reassigned to another city job unaffected by the financial crisis , they said .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ target date .
Any decision to lay off employees would require council approval .
The flurry of budget decisions comes as the city completes its ninth month of financial crisis , which was triggered by shutdowns that followed the coronavirus outbreak .
City analysts now estimate that taxes , fees and other forms of revenue will be 10 % below the amount received during the previous fiscal year .
As a result , city leaders have agreed to use $ 259 million from its reserve funds and borrow $ 150 million to continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a series of things in this budget that , in any other year , would be an hours-long debate over how controversial they are , ” Councilman Mike Bonin said .
Tuesday ’ s deliberations revolved largely around the question of where city leaders would find enough money to allow them to reduce the number of potential LAPD job cuts .
Bonin and Councilman Curren Price said the savings should come from within the Police Department budget , not other city programs or agencies .
Price , who represents part of South Los @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be part of a “ shared sacrifice ” at City Hall .
Many of the proposed cuts could be avoided , he said , if employee unions gave up raises or other forms of compensation .
“ We need them to come back to the table to discuss real cost savings and to delay their paid increases and bonuses that were agreed upon before this state of emergency , ” Price said .
The LAPD union is scheduled to receive a 3.25 % increase next month .
Thousands of civilian city employees are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ June , both of them 2 % .
If every raise planned over the next six months is deferred , the city would save more than $ 33 million , budget officials said .
The council did not support the strategy offered by Bonin and Price and instead agreed to allow city budget analysts to reduce the number of LAPD positions targeted for possible elimination using funds outside the Police Department , if necessary .
Several activists expressed alarm at the council ’ s budget plans , saying city leaders should cut deeper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Angelenos victimized by police brutality .
Some urged the council to revisit the People ’ s Budget , which was promoted this year as an alternative to Mayor Eric Garcetti ’ s spending plan , allocating 1.64 % of the city ’ s general fund to law enforcement — effectively wiping out the department .
Others accused council members of capitulating to the Los Angeles Police Protective League , the union that represents roughly 9,800 rank-and-file officers .
The union has poured money into the campaigns of several council members and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any of its scheduled pay increases .
“ Your hands are so tied by the LAPPL , ” Stacy Dawson Stearns , a professor of performing arts , told the council .
Several council members defended LAPD spending , arguing that additional cuts would expose residents to increased crime .
Buscaino , Lee and council members Paul Koretz and Monica Rodriguez tried without success to win passage of a measure to prohibit any LAPD employee from having their job considered for elimination .
Koretz argued that the number of homicides and shooting victims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only in his Westwood-to-Encino district but also citywide .
The proposal was defeated on an 11-4 vote , with Krekorian calling it “ irresponsible.
” Koretz has argued in favor of using more COVID-19 relief money , which was provided by the federal government this year to help cities weather the pandemic , to balance the budget .
Portions of those funds have gone to pay for rent relief , aid to cover utility bills and initiatives aimed at addressing homelessness .
Moore said Tuesday that the LAPD job cuts , if ultimately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the closure of at least one regional jail , reduce the quality of property crime investigations and cut patrols in areas covered by the department ’ s Olympic and Topanga divisions .
LAPD commanders will spend the coming weeks determining which officers and civilian city workers could face the possibility of layoffs , identifying positions based on seniority , Moore said .
The list will be submitted to the city ’ s personnel department for accuracy and to see if some non-sworn employees could be moved into other jobs , he said @

The Los Angeles City Council made its first move Tuesday toward eliminating hundreds of jobs at the Police Department and other city agencies, while stopping short of a more sweeping plan that would have targeted nearly 1,900 workers.
Facing a projected $675-million deficit, council members agreed to seek new employee furloughs, drain much of the city’s reserve and borrow $150 million to cover the cost of ongoing operations. But they scaled back the portion of the budget-balancing plan devoted to job cuts, identifying 843 positions — three-fourths of them at the LAPD — for possible elimination if other cost savings cannot be found.
The package of budget-balancing measures, which passed on a 13-2 vote, decreased the number of positions targeted at the LAPD from 1,679 to 628 — 355 officers and 273 civilians. Councilmen Joe Buscaino and John Lee voted against the proposals, saying they do not want any LAPD jobs to be contemplated for layoffs.
Tuesday’s decision means that LAPD Chief Michel Moore and top managers in the city attorney’s office, the Animal Services Department and the Bureau of Engineering will need to prepare and submit lists of possible layoffs to personnel officials by Jan. 11, city budget analysts said.
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Budget officials said the job cuts could be averted if department heads find new ways to cut expenses, the city receives a new federal aid package or elected officials secure another source of funding, such as concessions from public employee unions. Even when a position is eliminated, a layoff could be avoided if that employee is reassigned to another city job unaffected by the financial crisis, they said.
The council established May 22 as the layoff target date. Any decision to lay off employees would require council approval.
The flurry of budget decisions comes as the city completes its ninth month of financial crisis, which was triggered by shutdowns that followed the coronavirus outbreak. City analysts now estimate that taxes, fees and other forms of revenue will be 10% below the amount received during the previous fiscal year.
As a result, city leaders have agreed to use $259 million from its reserve funds and borrow $150 million to continue city operations.
“We are doing a series of things in this budget that, in any other year, would be an hours-long debate over how controversial they are,” Councilman Mike Bonin said.
Tuesday’s deliberations revolved largely around the question of where city leaders would find enough money to allow them to reduce the number of potential LAPD job cuts. Bonin and Councilman Curren Price said the savings should come from within the Police Department budget, not other city programs or agencies.
Price, who represents part of South Los Angeles, said the LAPD needs to be part of a “shared sacrifice” at City Hall. Many of the proposed cuts could be avoided, he said, if employee unions gave up raises or other forms of compensation.
“We need them to come back to the table to discuss real cost savings and to delay their paid increases and bonuses that were agreed upon before this state of emergency,” Price said.
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The LAPD union is scheduled to receive a 3.25% increase next month. Thousands of civilian city employees are scheduled to get raises in January and June, both of them 2%. If every raise planned over the next six months is deferred, the city would save more than $33 million, budget officials said.
The council did not support the strategy offered by Bonin and Price and instead agreed to allow city budget analysts to reduce the number of LAPD positions targeted for possible elimination using funds outside the Police Department, if necessary.
Several activists expressed alarm at the council’s budget plans, saying city leaders should cut deeper at the LAPD to reduce the number of Angelenos victimized by police brutality.
Some urged the council to revisit the People’s Budget, which was promoted this year as an alternative to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s spending plan, allocating 1.64% of the city’s general fund to law enforcement — effectively wiping out the department.
Others accused council members of capitulating to the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents roughly 9,800 rank-and-file officers. The union has poured money into the campaigns of several council members and, so far, has declined to delay any of its scheduled pay increases.
“Your hands are so tied by the LAPPL,” Stacy Dawson Stearns, a professor of performing arts, told the council.
Several council members defended LAPD spending, arguing that additional cuts would expose residents to increased crime. Buscaino, Lee and council members Paul Koretz and Monica Rodriguez tried without success to win passage of a measure to prohibit any LAPD employee from having their job considered for elimination.
Koretz argued that the number of homicides and shooting victims has grown rapidly this year, not only in his Westwood-to-Encino district but also citywide. The proposal was defeated on an 11-4 vote, with Krekorian calling it “irresponsible.”
Koretz has argued in favor of using more COVID-19 relief money, which was provided by the federal government this year to help cities weather the pandemic, to balance the budget. Portions of those funds have gone to pay for rent relief, aid to cover utility bills and initiatives aimed at addressing homelessness.
Moore said Tuesday that the LAPD job cuts, if ultimately approved by the council, could result in the closure of at least one regional jail, reduce the quality of property crime investigations and cut patrols in areas covered by the department’s Olympic and Topanga divisions.
LAPD commanders will spend the coming weeks determining which officers and civilian city workers could face the possibility of layoffs, identifying positions based on seniority, Moore said. The list will be submitted to the city’s personnel department for accuracy and to see if some non-sworn employees could be moved into other jobs, he said.
Times staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.