Fake Component Kingpin Gets 6 Years

Laura Perryman, the founder and former CEO of medical device company Stimwave, has been sentenced to six years in prison for creating and selling a fake medical device component to doctors, who then billed Medicare and private insurance companies for its implantation.

According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, Perryman callously created a dummy medical device component and told doctors to implant it into patients, so they could bill Medicare and private insurance companies approximately $18,000 for each implantation. She did this out of greed, so she could entice doctors to buy her device for many thousands of dollars.

Perryman’s scheme, which lasted from 2017 to 2020, involved designing, creating, manufacturing, and marketing an inert, non-functioning component of the StimQ PNS System (the “Device”), called the “White Stylet.” The White Stylet was marketed as a receiver of radiofrequency energy, but it was made of plastic and could not function as a receiver.

Stimwave sold the Device to doctors and medical providers for approximately $16,000. Perryman instructed health care providers to bill medical insurance providers, including Medicare, for implanting the Device into patients through two separate reimbursement codes. One code was for implantation of the stimulator portion of the Lead, and a second was for implantation of a receiver.

The White Stylet was a crucial component in the scheme, as doctors would incur a substantial financial loss with every purchase of the Device without it. Without a receiver component for doctors to implant and seek reimbursement for, doctors would incur a loss, making it more difficult for Perryman to sell the Device to doctors and medical providers at the approximately $16,000 price.

Perryman was found guilty of healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud following a two-week trial. She was sentenced to six years in prison by U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “Laura Perryman callously created a dummy medical device component and told doctors to implant it into patients. She breached the trust of the doctors who bought her medical device, and more importantly, the patients who were implanted with that piece of plastic.”