BALTIMORE (VINnews) — A federal jury convicted an Annapolis laboratory owner of health care fraud and money laundering for billing Medicare more than $18 million for respiratory tests that physicians did not order, patients did not need and, in many cases, were never performed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Patrick Britton-Harr, 42, of Annapolis, was found guilty Monday of five counts of health care fraud and one count of transactional money laundering. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count. A sentencing date has not been set.

Prosecutors said Britton-Harr, owner of Provista Health, offered COVID-19 testing to nursing homes across the country in 2020, when the facilities urgently needed screening services. After specimens were collected and other laboratories performed the COVID-19 tests, he billed Medicare for separate, high-cost respiratory pathogen panel tests that screen for more than 30 pathogens.

Treating physicians never ordered the panel tests, according to trial evidence. Several doctors testified they had never ordered such a test for any patient during their careers. Britton-Harr directed inexperienced staff — including high school and college-aged interns and a family member — to submit a panel claim whenever a COVID-19 test was performed.

He continued billing after closing his Arizona laboratory, barring employees from the facility and removing the equipment required to run the tests. Some claims were submitted for nursing home residents who had already died.

Provista Health billed Medicare $18.7 million for the panel tests over six months. Medicare paid more than $7.2 million on those claims.

Britton-Harr used the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle, purchasing a Porsche 911 for $112,500 in December 2020 and making $25,000 monthly mortgage payments on a waterfront mansion in Annapolis, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland said Britton-Harr’s exploitation of elderly nursing home residents and inexperienced interns during a global pandemic was “unconscionable.”

FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said the verdict shows the agency will pursue those who steal from taxpayers.

This is Britton-Harr’s second federal fraud conviction in 2026. In June, a separate jury found him guilty of six counts of wire fraud in a $15 million private-jet charter scheme.

The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI.