The CEO of medical device company Stimwave on June 17 was sentenced to six years in prison for helping create and sell fake components for chronic pain devices implanted in patients.
A jury found Laura Perryman, 55, guilty of one count of healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud. The case stemmed from a neurostimulator device that targeted peripheral nerves and was sold for $16,000 each. Physicians originally struggled to comfortably fit the receiver component, so Stimwave released a smaller part that was later discovered to be nonfunctional.
The new "dummy" part for the device, called the StimQ PNS System, was made of plastic and did not work as a receiver, according to a Justice Department news release.
The scheme cost Medicare and other insurers thousands of dollars in reimbursements for inoperable devices.