5 minPolitics
House Report Details Medicaid Fraud, Including $165K Billed for Dead Patient's Rides
A House Energy and Commerce Committee report exposes widespread fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, including a Colorado provider accused of billing $165,000 for rides after a patient's death and hundreds of hospices clustered in a single Los Angeles building.
A Colorado medical transportation provider billed the state's Medicaid program roughly $165,000 for rides attributed to a patient who had already died, according to a new report from the House Energy and Commerce Committee that documents widespread vulnerabilities in taxpayer-funded health care programs.
The provider, Wesam Yassin, was one of two operators of non-emergency medical transportation services charged by state and local prosecutors in Colorado in February 2026 for fraudulent billing. Yassin is accused of charging Colorado Medicaid a total of $3.3 million in questionable bills under a company called Sama Limo, including $283,000 for 64 rides for a single person — more than $4,000 per ride. About $165,000 of those charges came after the patient had died, the report said.
Federal authorities said proceeds from the alleged scheme were used for personal gain, including the purchase of a home, furnishings, luxury vehicles, jewelry and cosmetic surgery. The report also points to charges against Ashley Marie Stevens, who is accused of trying to take more than $1 million in taxpayer dollars, including roughly $400,000 for non-medical rides for herself and her family and for «ghost rides» that never took place.
The committee's findings describe fraud that spans local, state and federal programs. «Medicare and Medicaid fraud occurs nationwide and costs American taxpayers billions of dollars a year,» the report said. «Fraud is prevalent in all sectors of health care and is especially egregious in taxpayer-funded health care programs that are intended to serve vulnerable populations, including the elderly, disabled, children, and pregnant women.» The report added that patients suffer identity theft, long waiting lists, substandard care and, in some cases, a lack of services because of fraudulent claims.
In California, investigators raised concerns about the concentration of hospice providers in Los Angeles County. The report said investigators observed nearly 500 hospices operating within a three-mile radius in the county, 137 hospices on Van Nuys Boulevard alone, and 89 companies registered to a single address in Van Nuys. Lawmakers had previously raised concerns with the Department of Health and Human Services that growth in home health and hospice providers signaled possible fraud tied to foreign criminal groups.
The report cited data showing Los Angeles County held more than 31 percent of U.S. hospice agencies in 2022. Although the California Department of Public Health froze new hospice licenses in January 2022, the committee found that 15 new hospices located in a single Los Angeles County building still received Medicare certification in 2023.
House Republicans also flagged concerns that international criminal groups are targeting other areas of the health care system. The report highlighted 2024 allegations that «years-long, large-scale» schemes sought as much as $3 billion in taxpayer dollars through fake bills for urinary catheters. Members of Russian organized crime groups bought 30 small medical supply companies already receiving federal dollars and billed Medicare nearly $11 billion for urinary catheters, though more than 99 percent of those funds never went out the door. Similar medical equipment fraud schemes involved actors in Estonia, Pakistan, Georgia and Hong Kong.
In Minnesota, the report pointed to Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, who pleaded guilty to trying to defraud a $6 million autism therapy program paid for with state Medicaid dollars. He and co-defendants were accused of hiring unqualified behavior counselors and bribing parents to enroll children. Yussuf admitted during his plea hearing that he did not actually know anyone with autism, according to the report.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie said the problem reaches across the country. «Combating fraud is a coast-to-coast battle,» Guthrie said. «Every instance of fraud we uncover represents money stolen from taxpayers and care taken away from the patients who depend on it most.»
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