Telemedicine Boss Gets 20 Years for a $46 Million Medicare Scheme Built on Aggressive Telemarketing

Picture a retiree picking up the phone. Somebody on the other end is friendly, upbeat, and really, really wants to get them a free knee brace. Maybe a genetic test too. Sounds nice, right?

Now multiply that call by thousands, add some doctors who never actually examined anybody, and send the bill to Medicare. That's the scheme that just earned its organizer 20 years in prison.

So what happened?

On October 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Christopher Harwood, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for organizing and leading a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy that ran for more than six years.

He must also pay $17,942,402 in restitution to Medicare and $10,431,463 in forfeiture.

According to the DOJ release, Harwood owned and ran a telemedicine company called TelevisitMD. He and his co-conspirators targeted Medicare patients via aggressive telemarketing campaigns, inducing them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need.

Read that again. The front door of this whole operation was the phone.

Here's how the rest of it worked, per the DOJ:

• Harwood paid doctors to sign off on orders for orthotic braces and genetic tests.
• Those doctors did not follow Medicare's rules for telemedicine visits, had no real medical relationship with the patients, and often signed orders without any meaningful interaction with them.
• Harwood would then sell the signed orders to durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, laboratories and marketers involved in the scheme.
• He also owned several Florida DME supply companies that he used to bill Medicare millions of dollars for braces that patients did not want or need.

The totals: $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims, $17.9 million actually paid by Medicare, and more than $10.4 million in personal profit for Harwood.

He pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). Trial Attorney Owen Dunn of the Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Section is prosecuting it, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida joined in the announcement.

Why should you care?

Look, I get it. You're not selling fake knee braces to grandma. Good. Don't.

But here's the thing ... this pattern shows up again and again in health care fraud cases. Aggressive outbound calls. A "doctor" who signs whatever lands on the desk. Orders that get bought and sold like leads. If any piece of your business touches health care marketing, prosecutors already know what this playbook looks like, and they're looking for it.

And the DOJ is not slowing down. The release says its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, now nine strike forces around the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants since 2007. Those defendants collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.

That's not a rounding error. That's a whole department whose job is finding the next Harwood.

I've seen plenty of people in performance marketing chase a vertical because the payouts look amazing. Medicare leads, brace leads, genetic testing leads. When the payout seems too good to be true, ask yourself why somebody is paying that much for a phone call. Maybe you can relate.

What should you actually do?

It's not rocket science. Here's my short list:

• Know who's buying. If your calls or leads end up at a DME supplier, a lab, or a "telemedicine" company, find out what happens after the transfer. Who sees the patient? Who signs the order?
• Kill the pressure scripts. "Aggressive" is the DOJ's word for these campaigns. If your script talks people into products they never asked for, rewrite it.
• Watch the money trail. Getting paid per signed doctor's order, or per test shipped, is a giant red flag. Getting paid for a real, compliant, consented call is a business.
• Check consent and Do Not Call. Calling seniors without consent creates its own problems before fraud even enters the picture. Scrub your lists and keep your records.
• Walk away from bad partners. DO NOT keep sending traffic to a buyer you think is shady. "I just sent the calls" is not the defense you think it is.

The bottom line

Twenty years. More than $10.4 million in personal profit, and an order to forfeit $10,431,463. A whole house of cards that started with a phone call to somebody who didn't need a brace.

The phone is still the best sales tool in the world. Use it to help people, not to hustle them. Build it right, and you won't be the next headline. That's it.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Telemedicine Company Owner Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for $46M Medicare Fraud Scheme.