Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City

Police on Tuesday began investigating a doctor and two health workers at a major HCMC hospital for allegedly faking health insurance documents and medical prescriptions worth billions of dong.

Lan, who worked at the hospital’s Endocrinology Department, was arrested in June.

Initial C37B investigations show that Lan asked Pham Thi Duyen, who is also under investigation, to collect health insurance cards from workers in Ho Chi Minh City and adjacent provinces.

Tuy then made fake documents showing that the health insurance policyholders were admitted to the hospital for examination and treatment.

Based on the documents, Lan made up prescriptions, details of which were entered into computer by Thai.

Mai helped Lan by preparing the drugs in accordance with the fake prescriptions which were then collected by others whose identities were not checked.

Previous investigations showed that Luu Thi Lieu, 26, employee of Nhat Tien Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd who was arrested together with Lan, also offered her documents of health insurance policyholders.

Lan and her accomplices are estimated to have made over 1,040 fake prescriptions between January and April. The value of these prescriptions was VND3.536 billion (US$198,763), of which VND3.358 ($188,757) would be refunded by the health insurance companies. It is not clear what was done with the drugs issued on the basis of fake prescriptions.

Reported by Bao Thien – Ngoc Duc