Florida Telemedicine Owner Gets 20 Years for $46 Million Medicare Brace and Genetic Test Fraud
Christopher Harwood, owner of TelevisitMD, paid doctors to sign orders for braces and genetic tests Medicare patients did not need, prosecutors said.
The owner of a Florida telemedicine company has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for leading a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy built on orthotic braces and genetic tests that patients did not need, the Justice Department said.
Christopher Harwood, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, was also ordered to pay $17,942,402 in restitution to Medicare and to forfeit $10,431,463, the department announced on Oct. 23, 2026. He pleaded guilty on March 27, 2026, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, according to the HHS Office of Inspector General.
How the scheme worked
Harwood owned and ran a telemedicine company called TelevisitMD, prosecutors said. He and his co-conspirators targeted Medicare patients with aggressive telemarketing campaigns and talked them into accepting orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need.
Harwood paid doctors to approve the orders, according to court documents described by the department. Those doctors did not follow Medicare’s telemedicine rules, had no real medical relationship with the patients and often signed orders without any meaningful interaction with them, prosecutors said.
Harwood then sold the signed orders to durable medical equipment suppliers, laboratories and marketers who were part of the scheme, the department said. He also owned several Florida medical equipment companies that he used to bill Medicare millions of dollars for braces patients did not want or need.
$46.2 million billed, $17.9 million paid
In all, Harwood caused $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, and Medicare paid $17.9 million, according to the department. He personally made more than $10.4 million, prosecutors said. The conspiracy ran for more than six years.
Who investigated
The FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General investigated. Trial Attorney Owen Dunn of the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Section prosecuted the case, with the announcement made jointly with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
