A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has returned an indictment charging Dr. Edgard Salazar, 57, of Armonk, New York, with conspiring to bill Medicare for thousands of consultations that never occurred and for millions of dollars of orthotic braces that Medicare patients did not want or need, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday, November 12. The indictment itself was returned on Tuesday, November 10.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice release via HHS-OIG, Nov 12, 2026

According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, the telemedicine company TelevisitMD allegedly allowed Salazar to sign pre-filled prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries who did not need the orthotic braces ordered in those prescriptions. Prosecutors allege Salazar participated in submitting more than $6.8 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.

Source: Becker's ASC, Nov 12, 2026

The charges and who announced them

Salazar is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and five counts of health care fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count, the Justice Department said. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division, FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles, and Miranda Bennett, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case. Trial Attorney Owen Dunn of the Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Section is prosecuting it — the same prosecutor who handled the case against TelevisitMD's owner.

The earlier case: TelevisitMD's owner got 20 years

This indictment is the latest charge in a scheme Awaaz Punjab readers have seen before. Christopher Harwood, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, owned and operated TelevisitMD. According to the Justice Department, Harwood and his co-conspirators targeted Medicare patients through aggressive telemarketing, inducing them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need, and Harwood paid doctors to approve the orders. In total, Harwood caused $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims, and Medicare paid $17.9 million on them.

Harwood pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and agreed to pay $17.9 million in restitution. On October 23, 2026, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors allege Salazar was one of the physicians on the signing side of that pipeline — approving brace orders through pre-filled prescriptions without the consultations Medicare billing requires.

Why brace schemes keep targeting Medicare patients

Orthotic-brace fraud has been one of the most repeated patterns in U.S. health care enforcement for years: marketers call seniors, a telemedicine company routes the 'consultation,' a doctor signs an order — sometimes without ever speaking to the patient — and suppliers bill Medicare for braces shipped to people who never asked for them. The cost lands on the Medicare trust funds, and the risk lands on patients whose records now show equipment they did not need.

What happens next

Salazar's case will proceed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, where arraignment and detention decisions come first; no trial date was announced on Thursday. For the many Punjabi and South Asian families in New York and across the U.S. whose parents are on Medicare, the case is a reminder that the signature on a brace order — not just the telemarketing call — is where federal prosecutors are now focusing, and that a doctor's alleged role can be charged years after the claims were paid.