Top 10 worst cases of fraud - Part 1
1. PFIZER INC
Pfizer Inc., the drugs giant, was ordered to pay $2.3 billion in America's largest healthcare fraud settlement, for making false claims about four prescription medications. The payout – a $1.3 billion criminal fine and a $1 billion civil settlement – includes $102 million to be divided among 11 whistleblowers. All of these are thought to be former employees who became so concerned that the company was asking them to break the law and mis-sell the drugs – Bextra, Geodon, Zyvox and Lyrica – that they informed the authorities. Mike Loucks, the acting US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said he hoped that the case would send a powerful message to corporate America that “blatant and continued disregard of the law” would not be tolerated. “The size and seriousness of this resolution...reflect the seriousness and scope of Pfizer's crimes.”
2. DOCTORS' LICENCES REVOKED IN $80 MILLION TAIWAN INSURANCE FRAUD
Three doctors who admitted to conspiring with patients to defraud insurance companies of almost NT$80 million had their licenses revoked, for the first time in Taiwan's medical history. The scandal has rocked the medical community after the Department of Health revealed that a syndicate of medical personnel has been falsely diagnosing patients with cancer – going as far as performing breast removal surgeries and chemotherapy in disease-free bodies – since 2003 to file multiple insurance claims. The DoH estimated that more than 10 hospitals were involved. The doctors were formally charged and seven suspects were investigated in their role as fake patients.
3. U.S. DOCTOR ACCUSED OF FRAUD BY FAKING RESEARCH
U.S. federal prosecutors filed a healthcare fraud charge against a Massachusetts doctor accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers. Prosecutors allege that the doctor sought and got research grants from pharmaceutical companies, but never performed the studies. He allegedly made up patient data and submitted information to anaesthesiology journals that unwittingly published reports. As a result, hundreds of thousands of patients may have been prescribed painkillers unnecessarily.
4. MEDICAL WASTE COMPANY INVESTIGATED FOR CORRUPTION
A South African medical waste company which was found to be illegally dumping highly infectious raw waste is being investigated for corruption and fraud. Wasteman, the country's biggest waste management company which boasts multimillion-rand contracts with more than 150 hospitals and clinics were raided by the police. An Environmental Affairs Department spokesman said that the company had been sending truckloads of the medical waste to be buried at different sites instead of being treated and disposed of according to the law.
5. LAPTOP THEFT NETS DATA ON 800,000 U.S. DOCTORS
A laptop was stolen belonging to an employee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association put hundreds of thousands of U.S. physicians at risk of identity theft. It contained a database listing the business and personal information of about 800,000 doctors. Blue Cross Blue Shield offered credit monitoring services to affected physicians and urged doctors to keep an eye out for fraud arising from the breach.
