A California physician has been sentenced to over three years in prison for his involvement in a Medicare fraud scheme amounting to $2.8 million after billing the federal health care program for unnecessary hospice services, this scheme, executed between October 2014 and March 2016, involved the fraudulent certification of terminal illnesses for patients who were not terminally ill.
Dr. John Thropay, 75, from Arcadia, took on the role of medical director for multiple hospice companies, including Blue Sky Hospice Inc. in Van Nuys, and was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud on February 15, he wrongfully certified patients as terminally ill to enable Blue Sky Hospice to bill Medicare for hospice care, Thropay was implicated as the attending provider for more hospice claims paid by Medicare in 2015 than any other provider in the United States.
The verdict was handed down by the Central District of California, with significant contributions to the case by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada, Acting Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis of the FBI's Los Angeles office, and Special Agent in Charge Timothy DeFrancesca of HHS-OIG's Los Angeles Regional Office, as announced on the Department of Justice website.
Investigations by the FBI and HHS-OIG brought the matter to light, leading to prosecution by Assistant Deputy Chief Niall M. O’Donnell and Trial Attorney Eric C. Schmale of the Fraud Section's Health Care Fraud Unit, these units play an instrumental role in the Justice Department's ongoing efforts to counteract health care fraud nationwide, the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, part of these efforts, has charged over 5,400 defendants who have fraudulently billed more than $27 billion to federal health care programs and private insurers since its inception in March 2007.
