Medicare’s most indefensible fraud hotspot: Hospice care

• The number of hospices in the US increased by 43 percent between 2006 and 2016, but with the boom in end-of-life services, Medicare fraud also has risen.
• Medicare fraud and inaccurate billing costs the federal government health care program as much as $60 billion annually.
• The amount of Medicare beneficiaries receiving hospice care increased by about 53 percent between 2006 and 2016, with 1.4 million Medicare beneficiaries receiving hospice care in 2016. Spending increased by 81 percent to a level of $16.7 billion in 2016, according to a new report from the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services.