A California hospice owner has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison and ordered to pay $8 million in restitution after she was convicted of providing illegal kickbacks and defrauding Medicare of over $10 million, according to a United States Attorney’s Office press release published on Aug. 5, 2025.  
 
Nita Almuete Paddit Palma of Glendale, Ca., owned two hospice agencies but concealed this ownership from Medicare because she had previously been convicted of receiving illegal kickbacks and was excluded from Medicare participation, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).  
 
Palma paid up to $1,000 each month to marketers who could provide patient referrals, even if they didn’t qualify for hospice, the DOJ stated. Many beneficiaries were told that they did not need to be dying to be admitted to hospice. Others did not know their information was used to sign up for care and only discovered the issue after being denied for other care.  
 
In total, Palma submitted $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare over the span of a decade. She was found guilty of 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks in December 2024.