'Ghost' recipes, a scientific informant led the maxi-scam
'Ghost' recipes in Emilia-Romagna, the situation emerges. The investigation conducted by prosecutor Enrico Cieri is revealing new background regarding the maxi-round of false prescriptions which involved about fifty doctors, pharmacists and a scientific operator. Well yes, it was only one scientific informant who managed the maxi-swindle, estimated at around one million euros, on the National Health Service. The man is being investigated for criminal association aimed at aggravated fraud and forgery.
The man, from Bologna, is an employee of Italfarmaco of Milan and represents the company in the Bologna and Romagna area. The scientific rep had a leading role in the affair: it was up to him to pass on the prescriptions of very expensive medicines (up to 2000 euros), above all anticancer and antiviral medicines, to the complacent pharmacists who, subsequently, asked for reimbursement from the Health Service without however having delivered the medicines to the patients in question, which were free upon presentation of the medical prescription.
The 'holders' of the prescription, in fact, declared to the Carabinieri del Nas that they had never taken such drugs, and even in several cases the prescription had been given to people who had been deceased for a long time. For the moment, the only injured party is the Local Health Authority of Bologna, which has produced reimbursements for hundreds of medicines (between 50 and 2,000 euros per pack), for an estimated total of around one million euros. The facts concern the period between 2006 and 2009.
But it is obvious that the rest of the persons under investigation, all doctors and pharmacists, also had their role in the affair. There is still nothing officially, but there is talk of money and 'gifts'. For this reason, for some of them the crime of corruption could also be triggered. Some white coats would have signed hundreds of prescriptions, and for them the situation is obviously more serious than the doctors (all hospital employees or freelancers from Bologna and Romagna) who have signed only a few units. The pharmacies investigated would also be different, including some hospitals.
Source: romagnaoggi.it
