Four employees of a leading cancer hospital in Bangalore have been booked for cooking up medical bills against the names of hospital patients.
The group then sold the medicines to pharmacies and pocketed the money.
The incident came to light when the audit section of the HCG went through the bills, following up on a complaint filed by an insurance company.
The investigation found that the fraud so far amounted to around Rs. 59,700, based on bills taken out against the names of four patients. The police and hospital are going through other records to see if the net was cast any wider.
The internal enquiry found that the alleged fraudsters worked in the administrative and nursing sections.
The hospital suspended Tony J. Joseph, Nethravathi, Nagappa and Mahantesh, and filed a cheating complaint with the Sampangiramnagar police.
According to the police, the accused used to generate false medical bills for several patients, using stolen passwords and login information. The expensive medicines listed used to be sold in pharmacies for large sums.
The insurance company noticed discrepancies when their customer and a patient at the HCG, Sridharan Govindarajan, applied for a cash back scheme. The company, upon verification, found that the patient had submitted bills for medicines not traditionally used for cancer treatment. A detailed verification led to the exposure of the scam, the police said.
Senior executive officer of HCG Dinesh Madhavan told The Hindu that the administration had taken serious note of the malpractice and suspended the accused. “We have filed a complaint with the police and waiting for the completion of the investigations to take further action against them,” he said.
The Sampangiramnagar police said they were on the lookout for the accused, who are absconding.
