A Santa Clarita woman federally indicted over her alleged role in a multimillion-dollar hospice-care fraud is looking to change her not-guilty plea, according to public filings in federal court records.
Jessa Zayas, 36, of Santa Clarita, is facing up to 12 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for a single charge of health care fraud, according to a federal complaint filed by the Fresno Forfeiture Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A spokeswoman for the Eastern District where the complaint was filed said more information might be available closer to Zayas’ sentencing, regarding the terms of her plea.
“She is scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing on (Oct. 19) for the health care fraud and ID-theft charges,” according to an email Tuesday from Lauren Horwood, spokeswoman for the office. “No plea agreement has been publicly filed yet, but one may be filed closer to the hearing date.”
The allegations against Zayas were detailed in a Department of Justice news release.
Zayas was the CEO of two Van Nuys-based businesses operating in Fresno, Healing Hands Hospice and Humane Love Hospice.
These entities fraudulently billed Medicare for hospice care on patients who Zayas knew were not terminally ill, according to a June 2025 DOJ statement given after Zayas’ indictment.
“Zayas knew these individuals were not terminally ill as was represented to Medicare, and that they therefore were ineligible for the Medicare hospice payments,” according to an Eastern District news release. “The total amount of fraudulent Medicare billings caused by Zayas from June 2023 through May 2025 was at least $2,500,000.”
Zayas was in court last week to squash a federal warrant issued by Judge Stanley A. Boone, after Zayas and her attorney, George Mgdesyan, missed a scheduled hearing on Sept. 2.
Boone, who was sitting in for the presiding judge, ordered Mgdesyan to show cause why he shouldn’t be sanctioned, and his office responded with a mea culpa from his secretary, who took responsibility for both the error in notifying Mgdesyan and Zayas, which resulted in the warrant being quashed, per court records.
During the follow-up hearing on Sept. 8, when Mgdesyan gave his reason for missing court, a change-of-plea hearing was calendared for the following month by Judge Jennifer Thurston, the case’s presiding judge.
“Time is to be excluded under the Speedy Trial Act in that good cause exists and that the ends of justice outweigh the interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial,” Thurston ordered in the court minutes. “For the reasons set forth on the record, the continuance requested is granted for good cause and the court finds the ends of justice outweigh the interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.”
Mgdesyan also represents a Santa Clarita Valley murder suspect, Grigor Hovsepyan, who’s also due back in court next month, for a hearing in L.A. County Superior Court, regarding a murder charged in the fatal shooting of College of the Canyons student Gavin Unzueta. That case is due back in court Oct. 12, with a seven-day trial tentatively scheduled to start later that week, which could create another potential scheduling conflict.
The Department of Justice depicted a detailed scheme that targeted the elderly residents of retirement homes in Freno and Kern County, which is directly north of Los Angeles County.
Zayas and her alleged co-conspirators obtained the necessary information from the patients/residents by making evening visits, as most administrators were most likely to be gone for the day, lowering the level of scrutiny, according to the DOJ.
“Zayas and others knocked on the patients’ doors and asked them for their information so that they could enroll them in hospice. Zayas then caused the Medicare claims to be submitted with false representations about terminal illness and submitted forged doctor’s certifications when Medicare asked for supporting documentation,” the DOJ reported after the initial indictment. The care payments wound up in Zayas’ accounts, per a news release.
Zayas’ case was investigated by the FBI and the Office of Inspector General for the Health and Human Services Department, according to federal officials.
