Quality & complianceOfficial

Telemedicine owner jailed for 20 years over $46.2m Medicare fraud conspiracy

🇺🇸 US Department of Justice · Fri 23 Oct 2026

A US federal court has sentenced the owner of TelevisitMD for a six-year scheme involving unneeded orthotic braces and genetic tests, with restitution and forfeiture ordered.

The US Department of Justice announced on 23 October 2026 that Christopher Harwood, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He owned and operated the telemedicine company TelevisitMD and was found to have organised and led a Medicare fraud conspiracy lasting more than six years. He was also ordered to pay $17,942,402 in restitution to Medicare and $10,431,463 in forfeiture.

According to court documents, Harwood and his co-conspirators used aggressive telemarketing to induce Medicare patients to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need. Harwood paid doctors to approve the orders. Those doctors did not follow Medicare's rules for telemedicine visits, had no genuine medical relationship with the patients and often signed orders with no meaningful interaction.

Harwood then sold the signed orders to durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, laboratories and marketers involved in the scheme. He also owned several Florida-based DME companies, which he used to bill Medicare for braces that patients neither wanted nor needed. In total he caused $46.2 million in false claims; Medicare paid $17.9 million, and Harwood personally profited by more than $10.4 million.

Harwood pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. The FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General investigated, and a trial attorney from the Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Section prosecuted the case. The DOJ said its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, now nine strike forces, has charged more than 6,200 defendants since 2007 who billed federal health care programmes and private insurers more than $45 billion. The release also notes the creation of the Fraud Division on 7 April.

What it means for your team

  • The case shows continued heavy federal enforcement against telemedicine-linked fraud, with a long custodial sentence alongside financial penalties.
  • Companies working with telehealth prescribers, DME suppliers or laboratories should check that orders stem from genuine clinician-patient relationships and comply with Medicare telemedicine rules.
  • The release describes no product-safety or pharmacovigilance findings; its relevance is mainly to compliance and market-access teams dealing with Medicare-reimbursed products and tests.

Official source: US Department of Justice ↗

Article written by VigiEye from the official source (US Department of Justice). AI-assisted; check the source before acting.

More Quality & compliance All →