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HEALTH

German healthcare ‘losing billion euros a year to fraud’

Germany's healthcare system is losing as much as €1 billion euros a year to scammers, some of whom are linked to the Russian mafia, according to a media report Sunday.

Published: 17 April 2016 17:06 CEST
German healthcare 'losing billion euros a year to fraud'
With an ageing population, Germany has a booming health and home care market. Photo: DPA

One scam involves health workers who charge for 24-hour care but are alleged to only check on their patients two or three times a day, said the Welt am Sonntag weekly.

In some cases patients' family members are complicit in the fraud, taking a cut of the sum siphoned off the healthcare system.

The report, produced jointly with broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, said the fraud involved mainly patients requiring intense care, of whom there are an estimated 19,000 in Germany.

Care for such patients costs insurers around €22,000 ($25,000) a month, of which one fifth is believed to be lost to fraud, according to the report.

“The healthcare invoice fraud by Russian care providers is a nationwide phenomenon that affects particular places where there are groups that are closed off by language barriers,” said the report, quoting an internal dossier compiled by Germany's federal police.

“In some cases, Russian-Eurasian organised crime is known to have invested in home care services,” said the police document.

Federal police declined to comment on the contents of the internal report.

“Municipal social assistance agencies and health and nursing care insurers, and therefore the general public, are suffering considerable damage,” said police in a statement.

With an ageing population, Germany has a booming health and home care market.

HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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