A physician who spent an average of 26 seconds reviewing each prescription before signing it has been sentenced to federal prison and ordered to repay more than $1.25 million to Medicare. Prosecutors said Dr. David Antonio Becerril signed off on medically unnecessary genetic tests and braces for elderly Medicare beneficiaries he never met — some of them deceased, some with no limbs for the braces he ordered. The case shows how a single doctor’s signature, sold cheaply to a telemarketing operation, can convert into a seven-figure hit to the program that funds older Americans’ health care.
The $1.25 million restitution order in Eastern Washington
Becerril, a licensed Washington physician based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was sentenced on July 8, 2026, in the Eastern District of Washington in Yakima. The court ordered 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $1,250,667 in restitution and $37,340 in forfeiture. A jury had convicted him in September 2025 on 16 felony counts, so this is a settled conviction rather than an accusation.
The scheme ran from roughly February 2018 to September 2019, while Becerril was contracting with Real Time Physicians LLC, a fraudulent telemedicine and telemarketing company. In that arrangement he signed false and fraudulent orders for medically unnecessary genetic tests and durable medical equipment braces, according to the Justice Department’s account of the sentencing. The orders were then used to bill Medicare for tests and equipment the patients did not need.
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How a 26-second signature powered the fraud
The mechanics of the scheme rested on the physician’s attestation. Federal billing rules require a doctor to certify that a test or a piece of equipment is medically necessary, and Becerril provided that certification for patients he had never seen or spoken to. He reviewed each prescription for an average of about 26 seconds before signing and falsely attesting to medical necessity — barely enough time to read a name, let alone assess a patient’s condition.
Telemedicine and telemarketing fraud operations depend on exactly this. A call center or lead generator gathers Medicare beneficiaries, packages orders for genetic tests or braces, and needs only a licensed signature to turn each one into a billable claim. Local reporting on the case documented how the paperwork moved through Becerril without meaningful medical judgment, with coverage of the sentencing describing the speed and volume involved.
The value the operation extracted from Becerril was his license, not his care. Real Time Physicians LLC supplied the beneficiaries and the orders; the physician supplied the attestation that federal rules require before Medicare will pay. That division of labor is why these schemes can run at scale from February 2018 to September 2019 and beyond: the doctor never has to meet a patient, and the company never has to employ a doctor who does. The restitution figure of more than $1.25 million is the measure of how much of that machinery translated into paid claims before the jury reached its verdict.
Why the victims included the dead and the limbless
The most damning detail is what the signatures ignored. Prosecutors said the orders covered elderly Medicare beneficiaries Becerril had never contacted, including deceased patients and patients who had no limbs for the braces prescribed. An order for a knee or ankle brace for someone who has no leg is not a judgment call gone wrong; it is proof that no one was reviewing the patient at all.
Genetic testing fraud has been a particular magnet for these operations because the tests can be billed at high amounts, and older adults are told the screening is free and recommended for them. When the certifying physician never examines anyone, the “recommendation” is a billing device. The cost lands on Medicare, and through it on the beneficiaries and taxpayers who keep the program funded.
Ordering a brace for a patient with no limb, or a test for a patient already dead, is not a paperwork error that slipped past review; it is evidence that no review happened. That detail is what carried the case from a billing dispute to 16 felony convictions. It also underscores why the certifying-physician requirement exists in the first place — the signature is supposed to be the checkpoint that catches exactly these orders, and a doctor who signs in 26 seconds has turned the checkpoint into a rubber stamp.
Protecting a Medicare number from telemedicine schemes
Beneficiaries rarely know their information has been used this way until a genetic test or brace shows up on a Medicare statement. That makes the statement the single most useful defense. Charges for genetic tests that were never taken, or braces that never arrived, are worth questioning immediately, and a beneficiary who spots one can report it to Medicare.
The upstream protection is guarding the Medicare number itself. Unsolicited offers of “free” genetic screening or braces — by phone, at a health fair, or through a mailer — are the front end of schemes like this one, and handing over a Medicare number in response is what lets a stranger’s signature become a claim. Treating that number like a credit card, and declining any equipment or test that a personal doctor did not order, cuts off the supply of records these operations need. Becerril’s certifications ran for more than a year and produced over a million dollars in restitution before the case closed, a reminder that the paper trail is long precisely because the fraud is easy to hide until someone reads the bill.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
