Richard Keech
Introduction
Dr. Richard Keech is an 83-year-old physician from Torrance charged by federal information on October 22, 2026 in connection with a scheme to defraud Medicare by causing over $10 million in false and fraudulent claims for unnecessary hospice services. Keech served as the medical director for at least two hospice companies, Blue Cross Hospice and Atlantica Management, and his case was announced as part of a Los Angeles health care fraud takedown charging 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, with $2 billion in fraudulent claims alleged.
Background Information
According to the information filed against him, Keech signed documents referring Medicare beneficiaries to the hospices to receive hospice care and signed certificates of terminal illness — CTIs — falsely certifying that those same beneficiaries were terminally ill with a life expectancy of six months or less. The takedown in which his case was announced included three different hospice fraud schemes in which more than $138 million was fraudulently billed to Medicare where the patients were not terminally ill, alongside sham substance abuse treatment and unnecessary artery treatment schemes. Wire reports counted Keech among the doctors charged for making bogus claims to government and private health care programs, in one of several newly filed hospice fraud cases.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Keech faces charges by information — accusations and nothing more; he is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and no plea is reported in the coverage.
As alleged in the information, Keech signed CTIs for Medicare beneficiaries who had not elected hospice care and were not aware that they had been placed on hospice, knowing that Blue Cross and Atlantica would submit claims for reimbursement for hospice care to Medicare based on those false certifications. The certifications he signed declared beneficiaries terminally ill with a life expectancy of six months or less — the certification that made their hospice care billable to Medicare. Prosecutors allege the scheme he caused produced over $10 million in false and fraudulent claims for unnecessary hospice services. Authorities contend Keech signed certificates for Medicare beneficiaries who had not elected hospice care and were not aware that they had been placed on hospice, knowing the two companies would bill Medicare on the basis of those certifications.
The allegations describe the paperwork of hospice medicine turned inward: a physician’s signature on referral documents and on certificates of terminal illness, the two documents the information says Keech supplied, generated claims for services prosecutors call unnecessary while the beneficiaries involved reportedly never chose hospice and never knew they were on it. The $10 million figure prosecutors attach to the scheme is the amount of false and fraudulent claims he is alleged to have caused, not a figure he has admitted to.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Keech’s case was one of several newly filed hospice fraud cases announced on October 22, when federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged more than a dozen alleged medical fraudsters, including doctors, for making bogus claims to government and private health care programs; eight defendants were arrested on announcement day. First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said, “It is especially egregious when doctors and other health care professionals, who pledged to do no harm, resort to petty greed and criminality,” adding that the cases announced represent “billions of dollars in intended losses” and that “Every dollar drained out of our private and public health insurance systems is one less dollar available to those who truly need it.”
Current Status
Keech is charged by information — a charging document that, like an indictment or complaint, merely contains allegations; the Justice Department states that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General are investigating the matter. Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Patterson of the General Crimes Section and Justice Department Trial Attorney Sandor Callahan of the Fraud Division are prosecuting the case.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The allegations target the precise mechanism of Keech’s authority: the signature of a physician and hospice medical director, the paperwork that decides who enters hospice and whose care Medicare pays for. Prosecutors allege he used that signature for beneficiaries who had not elected hospice and did not know they had been placed on it, causing over $10 million in false claims across his role as medical director for at least two hospice companies. Charged at 83, he now faces a federal case whose allegations, if proven, would recast decades of medical practice through the certifications the information says were false.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, “L.A. Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 15 Defendants Charged, Including Six Medical Professionals, with $2 Billion in Losses Alleged”, October 22, 2026 — source
- MyNewsLA, “Doctors Charged in LA Health Care Fraud Takedown”, October 22, 2026 — source
- San Bernardino Sun, “Doctors among 15 charged in LA healthcare fraud takedown”, October 22, 2026 — source