Ten Years for a $136 Million Telemedicine Scheme | What This Medicare Fraud Sentence Means for Florida Telehealth and DME Operators

On June 30, 2026, a federal judge sentenced the owner of two telemedicine companies to 120 months in prison and ordered her to pay $66 million in restitution for a scheme that billed Medicare more than $136 million for braces and prescription drugs patients never needed. She was a licensed nurse practitioner. After her arrest, she rebranded herself as a compliance consultant and published books warning others how to avoid health care fraud. None of it changed the outcome. The sentence, and the unit that secured it, tell you where federal telehealth enforcement is heading in 2026.

The scheme ran from 2017 to 2019. Signed orders became inventory, sold to marketing companies for roughly $90 per beneficiary. The National Fraud Enforcement Division is now the unit charging these cases.

Key Takeaways

• A telemedicine company owner received 120 months and $66 million in restitution on June 30, 2026, for a $136 million Medicare fraud conspiracy.
• The conviction rested on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1349, § 1343, and § 1347.
• Selling signed orders to marketing companies for roughly $90 per beneficiary is conduct prosecutors charge as kickbacks under 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b.
• The National Fraud Enforcement Division now runs these prosecutions, and South Florida remains one of the busiest health care fraud districts in the country.
• Telemedicine and DME cases are usually won or lost in the pre-indictment window, before charging decisions harden.

What Actually Happened

According to the Justice Department's June 30 announcement, the defendant owned and operated two telemedicine companies between 2017 and 2019. Through those companies, she and others paid medical providers to sign orders for orthotic braces and prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries who did not need them. She signed many of the prescriptions herself.

The signed orders then became inventory. She sold them to purported marketing companies for roughly $90 per beneficiary. The marketing companies resold the orders to brace suppliers and pharmacies, which billed Medicare for equipment and drugs that were never medically necessary. Practitioners working for her signed orders for four or more orthotics apiece for more than 3,000 beneficiaries. More than 40 beneficiaries had orders for ten or more braces. To hide the money, she used shell accounts and installed nominee owners for her companies. Medicare was billed over $136 million and paid over $66 million. Her husband was previously sentenced to seven years in a related $56 million scheme. The proceeds bought luxury vehicles.

She pleaded guilty in March 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud. The detail that should stay with you is what happened between plea and sentencing. She held herself out as a legal consultant on medical billing and wrote compliance books. A decade in federal prison was the answer. Credentials acquired after the conduct do not buy leniency, and prosecutors used them to argue she understood exactly what the rules were.

Critical Mistakes People Make Early

The same errors show up in nearly every telemedicine and DME file that crosses my desk. Talking to agents at your door without counsel, on the theory that cooperation now buys goodwill later. Responding to a CMS audit or an OIG subpoena as if it were routine paperwork, and locking yourself into a story before you know what the data shows. Continuing to bill the same codes after you know an audit is open. Assuming a written compliance manual protects you. This sentencing should end that last illusion. The defendant literally wrote books on health care compliance, and the government treated her expertise as proof she knew better. The worst mistake is waiting for an indictment to hire a federal criminal defense attorney, because by then the charging decisions are largely made.

Strategic Defense Approach

Effective federal investigation defense in these cases is front-loaded. Early engagement with the prosecutor can establish whether you are a witness, a subject, or a target, and can keep a subject from drifting into target status. There is often a real story to tell before charges: good-faith reliance on billing consultants, fair market value compensation for actual clinical work, safe harbor analysis under the Anti-Kickback Statute, and medical necessity evidence the data alone does not show.

If charges are coming anyway, the early window is where cooperation decisions, loss amount positioning, and role arguments get built. The gap between billed and paid amounts, the difference between the marketer who designed the scheme and the practitioner who signed orders, and the presence of legitimate patient encounters all change the guideline math. A white collar defense attorney who waits for the indictment to start that work has given up the most valuable ground in the case.

AMC Defense Law represents health care providers, telemedicine operators, and business owners in federal investigations and prosecutions in South Florida and nationwide.

Facing a federal telehealth, DME, or Medicare fraud investigation in Florida? AMC Defense Law represents health care providers, telemedicine operators, and business owners in federal investigations and prosecutions in South Florida and nationwide. If you have received a target letter, a grand jury subpoena, or a visit from federal agents, contact the firm for a confidential consultation before you respond to the government.

If you or your loved ones have been arrested or are under investigation for federal health care fraud, call Aaron M. Cohen, 24 hours a day to get help.