Billions of dollars in damage caused by accounting fraud in the care

Nursing services commit billions of euros of social fraud
In recent years, numerous organizations have pointed to the grievances in the German health system and thereby criticized the nursing emergency. As has now become known, there is a massive accounting fraud in the care sector. It's about a billion euros a year. It remains to be hoped that the care will not deteriorate further.

Fraud in health care
For years, corruption and fraud in healthcare has been reported repeatedly. In the past, there were in particular indications of billing fraud in so-called remedies such as physiotherapy, physiotherapy or massages. Possibly fraud has also become easier here, as there has been a massive increase in temporary agency work. According to information from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Russian care services are committing billions of euros of social fraud. According to information from the "Welt am Sonntag" and the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), the BKA now has references to structures of organized crime.

According to media reports, there is massive social fraud in the care sector. There is talk of one billion euros per year. (Image: mickyso / fotolia.com)

Annual damage of one billion euros
According to the research, the social security funds incur an annual damage of at least one billion euros. According to the agency, regional priorities are in Berlin, Lower Saxony and Bavaria. A BKA spokesman explained: "The phenomenon of billing fraud with care services of nationals from the former Soviet Union is known to the BKA. We observe it very carefully together with the federal states. "As the research team of the newspaper and the broadcaster reported with reference to a confidential report of the BKA, the municipal welfare funds as well as the statutory health and long-term care funds would incur considerable financial losses.

Services not provided settled
It also states that in isolated cases there is information according to which "investment in Russian outpatient care services is a business of Russian-Eurasian organized crime". The forms of fraud are according to dpa varied. For example, care services systematically discounted services provided by fake care protocols. In some cases, patients from the former Soviet republics are involved in the fraud. Patient and nursing shared the proceeds. According to the figures, the Eastern European groups also shifted their business to lucrative ICU patients. According to the two media, they deduct up to 15,000 euros per patient per month from the social welfare system.

Stricter controls required
In the light of these reports, the German Foundation for Patients' Protection has demanded stricter controls on residential communities and nursing homes. "The federal government and the states must be alerted when organized crime spreads in the care sector," said Foundation Board Eugen Brysch. "Regular unannounced inspections hardly take place in the residential groups. Most countries have reduced supervision to a minimum. "Brysch demanded that federal prosecutors be established in the federal states. "It is appalling that care is now being mentioned in connection with prostitution and drug trafficking." However, it is not just about the money lost to the social security funds. "Above all, it is the people in need of care who suffer from the Russian mafia." (Ad)