The trial of 12 doctors, pharmacists and technical officers began in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday for faking medical prescriptions worth billions of dong two years ago.

According to the indictment, Luu To Lan, a 43-year-old doctor of the Cho Ray Hospital, connived with 11 nurses, pharmacists and officers in other hospitals to collect a number of health insurance cards from workers in HCMC and neighboring provinces.

The gang then made fake documents showing that the health insurance cardholders were admitted to the hospital for examination and treatment.

As the hospital has a policy to pay in advance 80 percent of treatment costs for health insurance card holders, the gang made up 1,100 prescriptions for the “fake” patients and sold the medicines to outside drug stores.

They paid each cardholder VND300,000-1.4 million.

They themselves earned VND4 billion ($191,000) from selling the medicines, of which Lan, the mastermind, pocketed VND1.1 billion.

The trial will end next week.