On July 8, 2026, Dr. David Antonio Becerril, a 70-year-old physician from Idaho, was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in a nationwide telemarketing scheme to defraud Medicare. The court also ordered Dr. Becerril to pay $1,250,667.19 in restitution, representing the full amount fraudulently billed to Medicare, along with forfeiture of $37,340, the amount he personally profited from the scheme. This sentencing follows a jury’s guilty verdict returned on September 29, 2025, after a trial that began on September 22, 2025, on sixteen felony counts, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, multiple counts of health care fraud, wire fraud, and false statements relating to health care matters.
According to court documents, between February 2018 and September 2019, Dr. Becerril, a licensed Washington physician, participated in a scheme to falsely bill Medicare for medically unnecessary genetic tests and durable medical equipment (DME), including back, knee, shoulder, and ankle braces. Dr. Becerril contracted with Real Time Physicians, LLC (“Real Time”), a telemedicine and telemarketing company, whose telemarketers cold-called elderly Medicare beneficiaries to obtain their personal information and Medicare beneficiary numbers. Using an internet portal Real Time provided, Dr. Becerril signed orders for genetic tests and braces for beneficiaries he had never seen, spoken to, heard of, or had any contact with whatsoever, including deceased patients and elderly patients missing limbs for which braces were prescribed. Real Time then sold these orders to genetic testing laboratories and DME companies, which billed Medicare and shared the proceeds with Real Time.
The evidence demonstrated that Dr. Becerril reviewed each Real Time prescription for an average of just 26 seconds before signing it and falsely attesting to medical necessity, and that he never once declined to sign a prescription for a beneficiary with whom he had no relationship. Real Time paid him $20 for each order he certified. In total, Medicare was billed over $3.2 million for prescriptions signed by Dr. Becerril and paid out more than $1.3 million before the fraud was discovered, while he personally received approximately $37,000. At sentencing, Judge Bastian remarked that Dr. Becerril performed no legitimate medical work and exercised no independent medical judgment while working for Real Time.
This case is not an isolated action against a single physician. In June 2022, the Department of Justice announced that Marc Sporn, the former owner of Real Time, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for his role in the same conspiracy to fraudulently bill Medicare.
Why This Matters for Telehealth and Health Care Stakeholders
This prosecution illustrates the continued and intensifying focus of federal law enforcement on telemedicine arrangements that facilitate fraudulent billing, particularly those involving third-party telemarketing/”telehealth” companies, brief or superficial physician review of orders, and per-signature or per-prescription compensation structures. The government’s evidence and the court’s remarks centering on the 26-second review time, the $20 per-signature payment, and the complete absence of any physician-patient relationship or independent medical judgment signal that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) will scrutinize compensation arrangements and clinical review practices as key evidence of fraudulent intent.
Compliance Steps for Telehealth Entities
We urge all telehealth providers, medical directors, DME suppliers, genetic testing laboratories, and telemarketing-affiliated health care entities to review their regulatory compliance programs, including:
- Evaluating physician compensation structures for any arrangement tied to prescription or order volume
- Confirming that genuine physician-patient relationships and independent clinical judgment underlie every order submitted for reimbursement
- Auditing vendor and telemarketing partner relationships for red flags of kickback or fraud exposure under the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act
- Ensuring documentation supports medical necessity determinations consistent with the level of clinical engagement actually performed.
Given the substantial restitution, forfeiture, and prison sentence imposed here, and the government’s stated intent to continue aggressive enforcement in this space, the cost of inaction or delayed remediation can be severe, including for prescribers who may have more limited financial benefit than others in many telehealth schemes.
Contact Frier Levitt
If your organization has any involvement in telehealth-based prescribing, DME, genetic testing referrals, or third-party telemarketing arrangements with federal health care program billing, contact Frier Levitt to schedule a compliance review. Our team can help assess your current arrangements against the enforcement patterns reflected in this case and help you implement safeguards before they become the subject of a government inquiry.
