Hospice’s Bad Reputation Amid Fraud Crisis Will Hurt Patients, Industry Experts Warn

Mark Vantrease regularly sees his Vietnam War buddies over breakfast, attends his grandchildren’s Little League games, and, when he’s up to it, tends to his lush front-yard garden, which is dotted with shells retrieved from his abalone-diving days. Time is precious for him. Last year, doctors told the 76-year-old former truck driver that a combination of heart failure, lung disease, and liver damage had left him with only six months to live. “That was about 11 months ago,” Vantrease said in a May interview, smiling at having, for the moment, cheated death. In June 2025, Vantrease began hospice, which focuses on quality of life for terminally ill patients, receiving regular visits from a nurse in his home in Novato, California. Medicare is covering those services for him. His hospice caregivers reminded him of the attention his unit received from medical staff in Vietnam. “We used to call them guardian angels,” he said, “because they took such great care of you.” But the Trump administration’s allegations of unchecked hospice fraud in California have tainted the industry’s reputation, prompting concerns that fewer patients will seek the care they need. Health policy researchers and ...