Public prosecutor's office is investigating millions of prescription frauds by pharmacists

Media report: prosecutors investigate because of millionaire pharmacist fraud
It has recently become known that frivolous care services are beating health insurers by claiming funds for services that have not been provided. In some pharmacies it seems to be similar. According to a media report, the coffers are cheated on so-called "air recipes" in the millions.

Fraud with so-called "air recipes"
According to information from the "Welt am Sonntag" prosecutors in several federal states in million-dollar fraud against pharmacists. As the newspaper reported, it was about so-called "air recipes". According to a message from the AFP news agency, pharmacists bill thousands of prescriptions with the statutory health insurance, even though the prescriptions never went through their counters. They would have made common cause with doctors or patients.

According to a media report, prosecutors in several states are investigating millions of fraud cases against pharmacists. It is about so-called "air recipes". (Image: Alexander Raths / fotolia.com)

Health economists assume a high number of unreported cases
According to the report, the sums of damage that statutory health insurance companies incur due to fraudulent pharmacists are sometimes significantly higher than for any other occupational group in the healthcare sector. Thus, only the commercial health insurance in 2015 reclaimed half a million euros from pharmacists and thus about twice as much as from the nursing services. Because the discovery risk is exceptionally low, experts assume a high number of unreported fraud cases. Bremer health economist Gerd Glaeske said: "In these constellations of individual criminal lives, there are usually few followers, and as long as they stick together and do not blaspheme each other, there is little chance of it going up."

Fraud may amount to billions
The organization Transparency Deutschland estimates the damage caused by fraud and corruption with pharmaceuticals at a total of 680 million to 2.72 billion euros per year. As it is called in the agency message, that would be two to eight percent of nearly 35 billion euros spent by public health insurance last year for drug prescriptions. It included funds misappropriated by pharmacists as well as donations that physicians received for the controversial application observations.

Billing fraud with care services
But corruption and healthcare fraud are not really new. In the past, it was primarily evidence of billing fraud in so-called remedies such as physiotherapy, physiotherapy or massages, but in the last few years, it was mainly maids in the care sector that were examined. For example, billions of dollars worth of billing fraud were reported recently. According to media reports, Russian care services with fake care protocols have billed for services that have not been provided, causing at least one billion euros in damage. (Ad)