FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Fort Lauderdale man who used telemarketing and paid doctors to approve orders for medical equipment and genetic tests was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for a Medicare fraud scheme that generated more than $46 million in false claims, the U.S. Department of Justice said.<\/p>\n
Christopher Harwood, 44, owned and operated TelevisitMD. Prosecutors said he and his co-conspirators targeted Medicare patients with aggressive telemarketing campaigns, persuading them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests they did not need.<\/p>\n
Harwood paid doctors to approve orders, though the doctors often had no meaningful interaction with patients and did not follow Medicare\u2019s rules for telemedicine visits, according to court documents. Harwood then sold the signed orders to medical equipment suppliers, laboratories and marketers involved in the scheme.<\/p>\n
He also owned several Florida medical equipment supply companies that billed Medicare millions of dollars for braces, the Justice Department said.<\/p>\n
The scheme led to $46.2 million in false claims, of which Medicare paid about $17.9 million. Harwood personally profited more than $10.4 million, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n