A California man has been sentenced for his part in a Medicare and healthcare fraud scheme.
John Thropay, M.D., 75, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison for his role in a $2.8 million fraud scheme. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the FBI investigated the case.
California man sentenced for Medicare fraud
Thropay was initially convicted in February of this year (2024) by a federal jury for one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and four counts of healthcare fraud. He was the acting medical director of many hospice companies, including Blue Sky Hospice Inc., based in Van Nuys, California.
The case documents provided at his conviction said:
“From October 2014 to March 2016, Thropay fraudulently certified Medicare patients of Blue Sky Hospice as having terminal illnesses that the patients did not have so that the company could bill Medicare for hospice services. In 2015, Thropay was listed as attending provider for more hospice claims paid by Medicare than any other provider in the nation.”
The Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program which was integral to the conviction and sentencing of Thropay is part of the Criminal Division. Nine strike forces are operating in 27 federal districts, have charged more than “5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion.”
In related Medicare news, The Justice Department has, according to a recent release, aimed its sights at the terminal healthcare provision company Intrepid U.S.A. Inc.
It is alleged that between 2016 and 2021, Intrepid Home Healthcare created Medicare claims of “patients who did not qualify or were not properly certified as eligible for the Medicare home healthcare benefit, where the services provided were not reasonable or medically necessary, where the services were provided by untrained staff, or where services were not performed.”
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