A Colorado Medicaid provider is accused of billing the state $165,000 for rides for a patient who had died, while using proceeds from the alleged scheme for personal purchases, according to a federal release. The case appears in a House Energy and Commerce Committee report on fraud in taxpayer-funded health programs and the costs patients bear when public funds are claimed through fraudulent bills.
Public funds, private gain
Wesam Yassin, one of two non-emergency medical transportation providers charged by state and local prosecutors in Colorado in February 2026, allegedly submitted $3.3 million in questionable bills to Colorado Medicaid through a company called Sama Limo. The report said Yassin billed $283,000 for 64 rides for one person, more than $4,000 per ride. About $165,000 of those charges covered rides after the patient had died.
A federal release announcing the charges said, “Proceeds from this scheme were allegedly used for personal gain, including the purchase of a home, furnishings, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and cosmetic surgery.” The charges remain allegations.
Ashley Marie Stevens allegedly tried to obtain more than $1 million in taxpayer money. She billed the state about $400,000 for non-medical rides for herself and her family, along with “ghost rides” that never took place.
The committee report said Medicare and Medicaid fraud occurs nationwide and costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year. It called fraud across health care sectors especially egregious in programs meant to serve vulnerable populations, including the elderly, disabled, children, and pregnant women.
Patients suffer, the report said. They face identity theft, long waiting lists and substandard health care. Some lose access to services when fraudulent claims consume funds. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie told Fox News Digital, “Every instance of fraud we uncover represents money stolen from taxpayers and care taken away from the patients who depend on it most.”
Oversight and its limits
The report also flagged hospice providers in California. Investigators observed nearly 500 hospices operating within a three-mile radius in Los Angeles County, including 137 on Van Nuys Boulevard and 89 companies registered to one Van Nuys address.
The California Department of Public Health froze new hospice licenses in January 2022. Yet 15 new hospices in a single Los Angeles County building received Medicare certification in 2023, the report said. Drawing on a March 2022 California State Auditor's report and HHS hospice ownership data, the committee report said Los Angeles County had more than 31% of the hospice agencies in the United States in 2022.
House lawmakers raised concerns with the Department of Health and Human Services earlier in 2026 about an increase in home health and hospice providers and possible health care fraud tied to foreign criminal groups. The report placed those concerns alongside examples of alleged schemes involving providers and medical-supply companies.
In allegations from 2024, schemes targeting as much as $3 billion in U.S. taxpayer money involved fake urinary-catheter bills. Members of Russian organized crime groups bought 30 small medical supply companies already receiving federal funds and billed Medicare nearly $11 billion for urinary catheters, the report said. More than 99% of those funds never went out the door. Similar medical-equipment fraud schemes involved alleged bad actors in Estonia, Pakistan, Georgia and Hong Kong.
In Minnesota, Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf pleaded guilty to trying to defraud $6 million from a state Medicaid-funded autism therapy program. The report said he and co-defendants allegedly hired unqualified behavior counselors and enrolled children by bribing their parents. At his plea hearing, Yussuf admitted he didn't actually know anyone with autism.
The Washington Post health brief URL provided only a headline and short teaser; it contained no article content about proposed price-transparency rules. The committee chairman called combating fraud “a coast-to-coast battle.”