Dear reader
Welcome to the September-October issue of the EHFCN Newsletter. This newsletter focuses on the 7th Annual Conference. In it, you will find all the information about the event which took place in Brussels, Belgium the 28th and 29th September.
In addition, we want to inform you on our main activites for the upcoming months.
Enjoy reading!
7th EHFCN Annual Conference closes on key message: join forces
The 7th EHFCN Annual Conference, which took place in Brussels on 28 and 29 September was perceived to be a great success by its 150 participants coming from over 20 countries. Brussels was chosen not only because it is the headquarters of the European institutions, but also because Belgium holds the Presidency of the European Union in the second semester of 2010.
Focussing on the thought-provoking theme of “The real cost of healthcare fraud and corruption: How to reduce it”, topics discussed ranged from the extent of money lost to healthcare budgets, estimated to amount to €56 billion annually for fraud and error in the European Union alone, to the problems of counterfeit drugs, conflicts of interest, and cross-border healthcare. Some time was devoted to more pragmatic sessions such as data mining and extrapolation techniques and to the share of best practices on prevention, detection, investigation and sanctions applicable in the fight against healthcare fraud and corruption.
EHFCN was very happy to be able to welcome prominent guests such as Laurette Onkelinx, Belgian Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health and Carl Devlies, Secretary of State for the Coordination of the fight against fraud, as well as Monica Macovei, Member of the European Parliament who is famous for her fight against corruption. All of them called on experts and all stakeholders to join forces and make effective use of the latest scientifically valid methods to measure and investigate healthcare fraud and corruption, and most importantly to tackle it.
Laurette Onkelinx particularly encouraged the development of broad partnerships at national and international level, involving private and public stakeholders, Carl Devlies recalled that the fight against fraud was a priority for the Belgian government who had created this specific function, which for the first time gathered all public administrations concerned in the fight against fraud in a structural collaboration platform, Monica Macovei urged the Network to gather reliable data which were necessary in order to develop a comprehensive policy to tackle fraud and corruption.
Cooperation was a keyword during the two days of the conference. At a national level, partnership was called between customs, the police and healthcare counter fraud organisations in different fields such as counterfeit drugs or fraud investigations; at an international level, collaboration has to be increased as cross-border fraud is on the increase too. Examples include people from the Republic of Ireland accessing the free healthcare services for Northern Ireland residents by claiming false addresses, or patients living in one country who claim for expensive treatment in their country of origin. This was timely as patient mobility is under scrutiny with the Directive on cross-border healthcare to be voted in a second reading at the European Parliament.
