The owner of a telemedicine company pleaded guilty today to organizing and leading a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy that spanned more than six years.
According to court documents, Christopher Harwood, 43, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, admitted that he owned and operated a telemedicine company called TelevisitMD.
Harwood and his co-conspirators allegedly targeted Medicare patients through aggressive telemarketing campaigns, inducing them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests that they did not need. Harwood paid doctors to approve orders for these braces and genetic tests.
These doctors did not follow Medicare’s rules for telemedicine visits, did not have real medical relationships with the Medicare patients, and often signed orders for orthotic braces and genetic tests without any meaningful interaction with the Medicare patients.
Harwood then sold the signed doctors’ orders to durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies, laboratories, and marketers who were part of the scheme.
Harwood also owned and operated multiple DME supply companies based in Florida that he used to bill Medicare millions of dollars for orthotic braces that Medicare patients did not want or need. In total, at least $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare as part of Harwood’s scheme.
Medicare paid $17.9 million based on these claims, and Harwood personally received more than $10.4 million from the fraud scheme.
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Harwood pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and agreed to pay $17.9 million in restitution. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date. Harwood faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Earlier this year, Vice President J.D. Vance announced a six-month freeze on new enrollments of durable medical equipment because of rampant fraud.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office made the announcement.
HHS-OIG and FBI investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Owen Dunn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of eight strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
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