Filipino couple among those charged in hospice care fraud allegedly taking money from patients who were not dying
Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 76, a thrice-convicted health care fraudster now incarcerated at a federal prison in Seattle, and her husband, Adolfo Catbagan, 68, of Glendale, are charged in an 11-count indictment with operating at least three fraudulent hospice care facilities, according to an April 2 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice Central District of California.
The statement says she did this even while she was free on bond awaiting another hospice fraud trial.
Law enforcement arrested Catbagan the morning of April 2.
Palma, who is a lawful permanent resident from the Philippines, and Catbagan are charged in an indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud and 10 counts of health care fraud.
According to the indictment, from June 2022 to April 2024, Palma and Catbagan opened three Glendale-based hospice care facilities despite Palma being legally barred from doing so: One Up Hospice Care Inc., Rosewood Hospice and Palliative Care Inc., and Advance Hospice and Palliative Care Inc.
Catbagan was named as the nominal owner and CEO of the three hospices when Palma in fact owned and exercised operating control of them – despite her exclusion – so Medicare would not deny the companies’ claims. The defendants submitted false claims to Medicare for beneficiaries who were not terminally ill and the physicians supposedly providing hospice services did not treat the patients.
Palma and Catbagan submitted at least $4.8 million in fraudulent claims through these companies, resulting in Medicare payments of at least $4.2 million, according to the DOJ press statement.
Assistant United States Attorneys Andrew M. Roach and Roger A. Hsieh of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section is handling asset forfeiture matters for this case.
A year earlier in 2025, Palma, 75, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who also ordered her to pay $8,270,032 in restitution.
A federal jury in December 2024 found her guilty of 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals.
Palma was excluded from Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and older, because of prior federal convictions for receiving illegal kickbacks. While she was excluded from Medicare, Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and bought C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015 and concealed her ownership interest in both hospices from Medicare.
Palma then paid “marketers” hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that Palma could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care.
Hospice is only for those who are terminally ill and have a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice provides comfort care to a patient instead of trying to cure the patient’s illness, and a patient forfeits certain benefits under Medicare when electing hospice.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Roger A. Hsieh of the Major Frauds Section and Matt Coe-Odess of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section prosecuted this case. https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/glendale-woman-sentenced-9-years-federal-prison-106-million-hospice-fraud-scheme
