Doctors Guilty in $8.8 Million Covina Healthcare Fraud Scheme

COVINA, CA - Two Southland doctors were found guilty today of federal health care fraud charges for falsely certifying that Medicare patients were terminally ill, and therefore qualified for hospice care, when the vast majority of them were not actually dying.

Following a two-week trial, the doctors were found guilty of participating in a scheme related to the Covina-based California Hospice Care. Between March 2009 and June 2013, CHC submitted roughly $8.8 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medi-Cal for hospice-related services, and the public health programs paid out nearly $7.4 million to CHC.

The doctors -- Sri "Dr. J" Wijegoonaratna, 61, of Anaheim, and Boyao Huang, 43, of Pasadena -- were each found in guilty in Los Angeles of multiple federal counts of health care fraud.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero, who presided over the trial, is scheduled to sentence the defendants on Aug. 15, at which time each will potentially face decades in federal prison.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock