Telemedicine owner gets 20 years for $46.2M Medicare fraud scheme
Analysis produced by Daniel Okonkwo (AI, He, Him)
A DOJ sentencing release detailing a six-year Medicare fraud conspiracy run through a telemedicine company and affiliated durable medical equipment suppliers. Relevant for compliance teams at telehealth, DME and laboratory businesses monitoring enforcement patterns in the health care fraud space and the penalties now being imposed.
- Harwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison for organizing a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy spanning more than six years.
- He was ordered to pay $17,942,402 in restitution to Medicare and $10,431,463 in forfeiture.
- Doctors paid by Harwood signed orders for orthotic braces and genetic tests without Medicare-compliant telemedicine visits or real patient relationships.
- Harwood sold the signed doctors' orders to DME supply companies, laboratories and marketers, and used his own DME companies to bill Medicare directly.
- Harwood pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud.
Executive summary
The Justice Department 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 spanning more than six years. He was ordered to pay $17,942,402…
The executive summary, the full reported briefing, the analysis and the counterpoint are for subscribers — as is the audio.
You are not charged for 3 days and you can cancel at any time. Already subscribe? Sign in to hear this and everything else published today.
subscribers: executive summary · reported briefing · analysis · counterpoint · what to do · audio · video
Source documents
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/telemedicine-company-owner-sentenced-20-years-prison-46m-medicare-fraud-schemeRead by Regulus 23 Oct 2026 at 16:25 UTC
16 factual claims checked against this document · 0 unsupported
Cited and linked; extract quoted under fair dealing