The owner of a Florida telemedicine company pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy that stretched over more than six years, the Justice Department announced.
Christopher Harwood, 43, of Fort Lauderdale, admitted in court documents that he owned and operated TelevisitMD, a telemedicine company he used as the centerpiece of an elaborate scheme to defraud the federal health insurance program. Harwood and his co-conspirators used aggressive telemarketing campaigns to target Medicare patients, pressuring them into accepting orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need.
Central to the scheme was Harwood’s practice of paying physicians to sign off on orders for those braces and tests. According to court documents, the doctors involved did not maintain genuine medical relationships with patients, did not comply with Medicare’s telemedicine rules and frequently approved orders without any meaningful interaction with the beneficiaries. Harwood then sold those physician-signed orders to durable medical equipment companies, laboratories and marketers who were participants in the fraud.
Harwood also owned and operated multiple DME supply companies in Florida, which he used to bill Medicare for orthotic braces that patients neither wanted nor needed. In total, at least $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare under the scheme. The program paid out $17.9 million on those claims, and Harwood personally pocketed more than $10.4 million, according to court documents.
Harwood pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. He agreed to pay $17.9 million in restitution and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. A federal district court judge will determine the final sentence after weighing U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case was announced by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles. The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI, and is being prosecuted by Criminal Division Fraud Section Trial Attorney Owen Dunn.
The Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, which leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since its launch in March 2007.
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