SAN JOSE,October 17,2013– /mercurynews.com/The CEO of a spinal implant company was convicted of overcharging the county and San Jose for workers’ compensation reimbursements, prosecutors said.Trudy Maurer, 68, is head of Implantium, a San Francisco-based company that purchases surgical implants from manufacturers and supplies them to hospitals. According to
prosecutors, the company altered invoices submitted to San Jose and Santa Clara County for workers’ compensation claims, exaggerating the price paid to manufacturers of surgical spinal implants.
Santa Clara County prosecutor Katharina Wells said Maurer and another employee, Tigran Shahsuvaryan, were charged with the crimes.
Maurer pleaded no contest on Thursday to four counts of felony insurance fraud. She was fined $50,000 and given a six-month probationary sentence, during which she will be electronically monitored, according to court documents. Implantium previously returned $130,000 to the overcharged insurance companies.
After Maurer serves her sentence, the counts will be reduced to misdemeanors.
“Workers’ compensation fraud impacts all employers in California, pushing rates higher,” said prosecutor Katharina Wells.
The company overbilled insurance carriers for the cost of the implants, inflating the manufacturer’s price by as much as tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
Santa Clara County and San Jose are self-insured for workers’ compensation.
Prosecutors said it was one of the first such cases against a medical device supplier in the state.
Shahsuvaryan’s case is still pending. Wells said he faces the same charges as Maurer.
Former Spinal Implant CEO Convicted of Fraud Charges
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Anonymous says
Not tough enough sentence. She knew she was stealing from the people of California. If I was the judge, I would have given her a mandatory minimum sentence of 6 months in the county jail. Only orange suites will discourage this type of crime.