A federal jury convicted a California man Feb. 15, 2024, for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing $2.8 million for hospice services that patients did not need, according toa Department of Justice news release.
 
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from October 2014 to March 2016, Dr. John Thropay, 74, of Arcadia, fraudulently certified Medicare patients as having terminal illnesses that the patients did not have so that Blue Sky Hospice 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 jury convicted Thropay of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count.