January 9, 2026 Washington, DC—Following listening sessions on home health and hospice fraud held today in Los Angeles, hosted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and attended by staff of LeadingAge national, LeadingAge California, other advocacy organizations and providers, Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, said:
“Our nonprofit and mission-driven members are committed to delivering high-quality, compliant care to beneficiaries. We share CMS’ goal of combatting fraud in home health and hospice care settings, as our advocacy in recent years on these issues demonstrates, and we appreciate having the opportunity today to discuss providers’ experiences in Los Angeles, ways to work with the agency to address fraud and strengthen regulatory safeguards, and overall needs relevant to our longstanding advocacy efforts specific to fraud in hospice and home health.
Fraud in any care setting is deeply concerning and also preventable. We believe it can be effectively addressed while critically reducing burden on legitimate providers furnishing essential services in the home.
As we explain in our December 22 letter to CMS, written in collaboration with the National Alliance for Care at Home, we encourage the agency to adopt measures that are analytically rigorous, operationally feasible, and take a targeted risk-based approach, consistent with its statutory authorities.
We thank CMS for initiating this productive meeting, and for the input from Administrator Oz, Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer Kim Brandt, and Deputy Administrator and Director of Medicare Chris Klomp. We look forward to continuing collaboration on this important issue.”
About LeadingAge: We represent more than 5,400 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-driven organizations serving older adults that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside our members and 36 partners in 41 states, we use advocacy, education, applied research, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old. Our membership encompasses the entire continuum of aging services, including skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care, affordable housing, retirement communities, adult day programs, community-based services, hospice, and home-based care. We bring together the most inventive minds in the field to lead and innovate solutions that support older adults wherever they call home. For more information visit leadingage.org
