New Haven — One day after their company lost a lucrative city contract due to fraud, nine out-of-town doctors ponied up $1,000 apiece to the mayoral campaign of frontrunner Toni Harp.

The donors work for Hamden-based Connecticut Orthopaedic Specialists. Their company took in around $800,000 this past fiscal year as authorized orthopaedic caregivers for New Haven government’s workers’ compensation plan, according to the city.

On July 25, city workers received a letter informing them that they could no longer go to doctors from that firm for treatment of work-related injuries under that plan.

The city canceled the outfit’s contract after one of its doctors, Patrick Ruwe, admitted to improper handling of a workers’ compensation case. Ruwe, who lives in Branford, had treated a public works employee for a shoulder injury. He authorized the employee to return to work on light duty for eight hours a day. Then he subsequently signed a form stating that the city should limit the employee to four to five hours of work a day. He signed the form after the employee requested it in order to work a second job, not because he actually needed the hourly restriction, Ruwe admitted. He admitted there was no medical reason for the restriction.

Click here to read the full story at Mirror partner New Haven Independent.
 

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