Former telemedicine owner sentenced for Medicare fraud

Steven Richardson, the former owner of two telemedicine companies, received a two-year prison sentence on Thursday for running a $110 million telemedicine fraud scheme for over six years.

The 42-year-old used his companies Expansion Media and Hybrid Management Group to target Medicare beneficiaries, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Richardson provided fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment such as back and knee braces between March 2016 and January 2023. The Florida resident made deals with telemarketing companies that found Medicare members and paid Richardson’s companies to create unnecessary equipment orders for them. Richardson partnered with medical staffing companies that found doctors and nurses willing to sign false examination reports. Typically, the doctors and nurses had never met the beneficiaries, according to the Thursday statement.

Richardson took the fraudulently signed documents to the telemarketers, who sold the reports to medical equipment suppliers. Richardson was aware that the suppliers would use the signed orders to submit claims to Medicare for equipment that was medically unnecessary, based on false documentation, and tainted by kickbacks, the statement said. He received a payment from the telemarketing companies for every fraudulent medical equipment order he produced over the near seven-year span, the release explained.

The FBI reported his sentencing in a Monday statement. Public backlash regarding what some characterized as Richardson’s relatively short sentence filled the comments, some calling the sentence paltry and insulting, and outside of the punishment system average Americans faced.

The Floridian pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in April 2024 after being charged two months earlier.