Glendale hospice owner sentenced to 9 years over $10.6 million in fraudulent kickback-driven claims
Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, excluded from Medicare over prior kickback convictions, bought Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015, concealing her ownership. She paid marketers, including co-defendant Percy Dean Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals, instructing them to tell prospective patients they did not need to be dying to go on hospice. Through the two companies, Palma caused the submission of approximately $10.6 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. A federal jury convicted her in December 2024 on 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks; she was sentenced in August 2025 to 108 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $8,270,032 in restitution. Abrams was convicted on six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks and sentenced the same day to three years of probation, including two years of home confinement.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $8.3 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Hospice fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-13
The facts, as recorded
- Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 75, of Glendale, California, had prior federal convictions for receiving illegal kickbacks that excluded her from participating in Medicare.
- While excluded, Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015, concealing her ownership interest in both from Medicare.
- Palma paid 'marketers,' including Percy Dean Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals she could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care.
- Consistent with Palma's instructions, Abrams falsely told prospective patients they did not need to be dying to be on hospice, then sent their personal identifying information to Palma to bill Medicare.
- Through Magnolia Gardens Hospice and C@A Hospice, Palma caused the submission of approximately $10.6 million in fraudulent Medicare claims beginning in 2015 for purported hospice care for patients who were not dying.
- Palma received approximately $6,000 each month a patient was billed to Medicare for hospice, and in turn paid marketers up to $1,000 per month in kickbacks for each referred patient billed.
- Many patients billed through Magnolia Gardens Hospice did not know they were signed up for hospice, and some found out only after being denied medical coverage for services they needed.
- When Medicare requested additional documentation, Palma and her husband directed employees to create fake patient charts, which were then submitted to Medicare.
- A federal jury, at the conclusion of a six-day trial in December 2024, found Palma guilty of 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals, and found Abrams guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks.
- Palma was sentenced on August 5, 2025 by US District Judge Dolly M. Gee to 108 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $8,270,032 in restitution.
- At a separate hearing the same day, Judge Gee sentenced Abrams to three years of probation, including two years of home confinement.
- Court documents allege that while awaiting trial, Palma took control of three other hospices and caused the submission of approximately $4.8 million in additional claims; this later allegation has not been proven at trial.
Why this case matters
Palma had already been convicted once for the same kind of kickback scheme, which is why she was formally excluded from Medicare. This case shows that exclusion is not a hard barrier on its own: she got back into the program by buying hospices through her daughter’s and husband’s names and hiding her own ownership from the agency meant to be keeping her out.
The kickback and the bill are two separate crimes
Prosecutors charged Palma separately for paying kickbacks and for the underlying billing fraud. Abrams, who never billed Medicare directly, was convicted purely on the kickback counts, which is why he received probation rather than prison: the referral payment itself is illegal, independent of whether the resulting bill is ever paid.
When the paper trail doesn’t hold up
Once Medicare asked for documentation, Palma’s response, according to the government, was not to stop billing but to manufacture the records needed to keep the claims looking legitimate. That detail is what separates ordinary billing error from fraud prosecutors could prove: evidence that false records were created specifically to survive a Medicare audit.
The caveat
Palma and Abrams were convicted by a federal jury after a six-day trial and have now been sentenced; the facts above, including the dollar figures, the kickback structure and the fabricated charts, come from the Justice Department’s own account of the trial evidence and the sentence imposed, not from an unproven accusation. The single exception is the claim that Palma took control of three additional hospices while awaiting trial and caused $4.8 million in further fraudulent billing: the government’s press release describes this as something “court documents allege,” and it has not been proven at trial.
Sources
- Glendale Woman Sentenced to 9 Years in Federal Prison for $10.6 Million Hospice Fraud Scheme Involving Kickbacks for Patients. US Attorney's Office, Central District of California. Accessed 2026-10-13. Supports: Every fact above: Palma's prior exclusion, the concealed ownership of both hospices, the kickback payments to Abrams, the $10.6 million in fraudulent claims, the $6,000-a-month per-patient billing and $1,000-a-month kickbacks, the patients unaware they were enrolled, the fabricated patient charts, the jury's December 2024 verdict, the August 5, 2025 sentencing, the $8,270,032 restitution, Abrams's sentence, and the later allegation about three additional hospices.