LONG BEACH >> Michael D. Drobot, former owner of the now-defunct Pacific Hospital, agreed to plea guilty Friday to charges connected to what state officials describe as the state’s largest ever worker’s compensation scheme that cheated taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Drobot, 69, of Corona Del Mar, was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with orchestrating a conspiracy in which tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks were paid to doctors, chiropractors, marketers and others who referred patients to his hospital for spinal surgery.

The referrals to the hospital led to more than $500 million in bills being fraudulently submitted between 2008 and 2013, with much of the total being paid by the California Workers’ Compensation System, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Eric Weirich, deputy commissioner of the enforcement branch of the California Department of Insurance, said in a joint press conference with the U.S. Attorney’s Office that the scheme involved more than 150 insurance companies and is the largest such case in state history.

Weirich said many may think of health insurance fraud as a victimless crime, but every business and every consumer pays the cost of fraud through higher premiums.

With Drobot now cooperating with the government, Weirich warned that his agency will find those who are breaking the law.

“I assure you, this is the first in many cases to come,” Weirich said.

As part of his deal, Drobot agreed to plead guilty to two counts, conspiracy and payment of kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. He could be sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Drobot’s attorneys, Janet I. Levine and Jeffrey H. Rutherford of the Los Angeles office of Crowell & Moring, issued a statement Friday saying Drobot “acknowledged and accepts responsibility for his actions. He is providing information to assist the government in its expanding investigations.”

Prosecutors also said that Drobot paid $28,000 in bribes to California Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, to support legislation delaying or limiting changes in workers compensation laws relating to the amount of money medical providers are reimbursed for performing spinal surgeries — a key part of Drobot’s scheme.

According to a plea agreement, Drobot offered to pay a kickback of $15,000 per lumbar fusion surgery and $10,000 per cervical fusion surgery directed to his hospital. In some cases, patients lived dozens or hundreds of miles from Pacific Hospital, and closer to other qualified medical facilities.

To finance the kickbacks, Drobot inflated the price of implantable devices used during spinal surgeries, knowing that under California law, “medical hardware was considered a ‘pass-through’ cost that could be billed at no more than $250 over what Pacific Hospital paid for the hardware,” the plea agreement stated.

Calderon allegedly arranged meetings between Drobot and other public officials and helped Drobot try to persuade others to keep the pass-through law in effect, prosecutors said. Senate Bill 863, which closed the loophole, became law on Jan. 1 last year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged Calderon and his brother, former state assemblyman Tom Calderon, with political corruption connected to Drobot’s case and an FBI sting operation where agents posed as filmmakers to bribe the senator to introduce favorable legislation.

Pacific Hospital was sold to Santa Fe Springs-based College Health Enterprises in early October. The facility is now named College Medical Center Long Beach.

Nobody answered the door during a visit to Drobot’s Bayside Drive home in Corona Del Mar on Friday.

His two-story, three-car garage residence is nestled amongst multi-million homes about a minute away from Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, where on Friday a menu in advance of the 2014 Commodore’s Ball revealed a duo serving of filet of beef forestiere and stuffed chicken with truffle mousse.

A woman who was walking her two dogs past the residence described Drobot as a “real jerk” who “thought he was above it all.”

The woman, who declined to give her name, said Drobot was “always showing off his cars.”

Contact Eric Bradley at 562-499-1254.

Staff writers Josh Dulaney and Andrew Edwards contributed.