FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — The owner of a Florida telemedicine company was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison for organising and leading a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy that ran for more than six years, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Christopher Harwood, 44, of Fort Lauderdale owned and operated TelevisitMD. The court also ordered him to pay $17,942,402 in restitution to Medicare and $10,431,463 in forfeiture. Harwood pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud.

20 yearsPrison sentence imposed on Friday
$46.2 millionFalse and fraudulent claims caused to Medicare (yaani about $4.62 crore)
$17.9 millionAmount Medicare actually paid on those claims
$10.4 million+Harwood's personal profit, per the Justice Department

According to court documents, Harwood and his co-conspirators targeted Medicare patients through aggressive telemarketing campaigns, inducing them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need. Harwood paid doctors to approve the orders; the doctors did not follow Medicare's telemedicine-visit rules, had no real medical relationships with the patients and often signed orders without any meaningful interaction with them, the Justice Department said.

Source: Becker's ASC

Harwood then sold the signed doctors' orders to durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies, laboratories and marketers who were part of the scheme. He also owned and operated multiple Florida-based DME supply companies that billed Medicare millions of dollars for orthotic braces patients did not want or need.

In total, Harwood caused $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, of which Medicare paid $17.9 million, and he personally profited more than $10.4 million, according to the Justice Department. The FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General investigated the case.