A California hospice owner and a freelance marketer have been convicted of Medicare fraud, totaling $3.2 million, and anti-kickback statute violations.

Nita Palma of Glendale, California, in 2025 purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and concealed her ownership from Medicare, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Palma had previously been banned from the Medicare program due to earlier involvement in kickback schemes. She has been convicted of 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying kickbacks for hospice referrals.

“During the health care fraud scheme, Medicare requested additional documentation from Magnolia Gardens Hospice to support the purported hospice claims,” the Justice Department indicated in a statement. “In response, Palma and her husband directed employees to create fake patient charts and had those fake patient charts submitted to Medicare.”

Court documents allege that while awaiting trial in this matter, Palma took control of three other hospices and caused the submission of approximately $4.8 million in claims for purported hospice care.

In the midst of these activities, Palma engaged paid marketers hundreds of thousands of dollars for referral kickbacks. These included Percy Abrams or Lakewood, California. Abrams was found guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for health care referrals. Palma allegedly paid him $6,000 for each month that yielded patient referrals.

Many of the patients enrolled by Magnolia Gardens Hospice were not terminally ill, and some did not know they had been placed in hospice, according to the Justice Department.

“Consistent with instructions provided by Palma, Abrams falsely represented to prospective patients that they did not need to be dying to be on hospice,” the Justice Department stated. “After collecting personal identifying information from prospective patients that were not dying, Abrams sent the information to Nita Palma so she could bill Medicare for purported hospice care.”