On February 5, the owners of two telemedicine companies, Advantage Choice Care LLC and Tele Medcare LLC, of Richmond Hill, Georgia, were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, paying and receiving kickbacks, health care and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment alleges that the owners solicited and received kickbacks and bribes from patient recruiters, pharmacies, brace suppliers, and others in exchange for arranging for doctors to order medically unnecessary braces for Medicare beneficiaries. In addition, the owners used their telemedicine companies to recruit and hire health care providers to order the braces. The owners allegedly paid bribes and kickbacks to providers to order the medically unnecessary medical equipment from March 2017 through April 2019. Through this scheme, the indictment alleges that the owners caused to be submitted over $56 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for unnecessary braces, and Medicare paid brace suppliers over $28 million in false claims.