Cross-Border Fraud

The EHFCN Cross-Border Fraud Working Group

Following the EHFCN Annual Conference in Malta in 2008, a Working Group on Cross-Border Fraud (CBF) was established. The objective of the Working Group is to analyse the issues and contributing factors underlying cross-border healthcare fraud in Europe and to propose a tool to determine risks.

The CBF Working Group was tasked with

• defining the problem of cross-border fraud in healthcare, including determining the scale and nature of the problem,
• listing the possible risks and actual cases, and
• proposing actions that could be taken to counter the problem of cross-border fraud and corruption.

The aim of compiling this information is to produce a matrix outlining all of the issues and contributing factors affecting fraud, along with examples of case studies and preventative measures. The matrix can then be used as a tool to assess risks, to share best practice in combating fraud and to identify loopholes in the various systems that could be exploited by people seeking to commit fraud.

The CBF Working Group will deliver a presentation on the Risks of Cross-Border Fraud in Healthcare at the Annual Conference of 2009 and is preparing a White Paper with the aim to be published and presented to the EU Commission in December 2009.

Members of the Working Group are Sandra Lowe (Northern Ireland), Eadaoin Flynn (UK), Loubna Boufrach (the Netherlands), Jef De Gruyter (Belgium), Paul Vincke (Belgium).