Seventeen people investigated for fraud against the SSN in Pomigliano d'Arco

The Guardia di Finanza of Naples has executed a precautionary custody order against seventeen people, including general practitioners, pharmacists and owners of diagnostic centers, investigated on various counts for aggravated fraud against the National Health Service, ideological falsity committed by a public official in certificates, corruption and criminal association.

The investigations, conducted by the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Napoli, have allowed us to hypothesize the operation of two distinct criminal associations rooted in the territory of the municipality of Pomigliano d'Arco, constituted, organized and directed by general practitioners, contracted with the National Health System and by some owners and managers of pharmacies and blood analysis laboratories.

The first association allegedly operated by issuing false prescriptions for drugs in favour of individuals exempt from paying the ticket health system, in order to ensure the free availability of the drugs, which, however, would not have been provided to the formal beneficiaries, resulting in the undue reimbursement of the cost of the products by the NHS, with a corresponding damage to the coffers of the territorially competent ASL.

The alleged illicit scheme was divided into the following phases:

the professionals of a studio medical health insurance company general medicine associate and the owners of six pharmacies Pomigliano d'Arco (one of which was municipal) reached agreements among themselves and, in some cases, with scientific informants, interested in eliminating the stocks of sponsored products, for the issuing and acceptance of medical prescriptions for pharmacological products in the name of patients exempt from paying the ticket and having as their object drugs that were not actually delivered to the formal beneficiaries;

the prescriptions were physically filled out in paper or electronic format by the medical office staff or by the pharmacy staff;
the pharmacy staff proceeded to remove the so-called "stamps" from the drug packages and affixed them to the false prescriptions, which were then sent to the local health authority for the purpose of providing financial compensation for the drugs, which were only apparently marketed;

The undelivered medicines, deprived of the “stamp”, were temporarily accumulated and stored at compliant pharmacies to then be collected by the GP or by the office employees.

The second association, on the other hand, would have operated by issuing false prescriptions for blood tests in favor of subjects exempt from paying the health ticket, different from the actual users of the prescribed health services, and in addition containing the indication of tests not performed, additional and more expensive than those requested or necessary for the needs of the patient.

The illicit system evidently contributed to an early exhaustion of the regional funds allocated to the various healthcare facilities contracted with the SSN, already in the first days of the month, forcing a large number of taxpayers to pay, out of their own pockets, for the clinical tests that would have been due to them free of charge or with a contribution to the cost, in the forms and according to the methods provided for by the legislation in force.

In this case the fraud was divided into the following phases:

a general practitioner in Pomigliano d'Arco offered his patients the possibility of undergoing, for a small fee, a home blood test functional to carrying out the required tests at two colluding laboratories, located in the same municipality.

Subsequently, with the help of a collaborator, he proceeded to issue the prescription containing the prescription of the analyses to be performed, as well as, frequently, the prescription of additional and more expensive tests than those connected to the real diagnostic needs of the patient, compiling it for the benefit of subjects other than the actual users of the healthcare service;

the nurses, once the home blood samples had been taken, delivered the blood samples and the false prescriptions to the laboratory staff, taking care to highlight, as indicated by the general practitioner, any additional and unnecessary ones to be carried out;

the owners and managers of diagnostic centers, in order to benefit from the flow of clientele guaranteed by the general practitioner, accepted the samples provided by the nurses and carried out the tests.

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