Police and prosecutors in Bucharest have started searching the homes of doctors and pharmacists in Bucharest who are suspected to have defrauded the National Health Insurance House by the fraudulent reimbursement of drug prescriptions. Six home searches were carried on this morning (October 9 ) in Bucharest. The Police also had warrants to bring 26 people into custody.

The damage caused by the suspects of the fraudulent drug prescriptions network were estimated at some EUR 350,000. The suspects issued fake drug prescriptions and claimed the money to cover them from the National Health Insurance House.

The Police had searched 27 homes in the same case earlier in March this year. So far, prosecutors have started investigations for 22 individuals for having used forgery, taking and giving bribes and for money laundering.

Romania recently installed a new e-prescription system, but only 10 percent of doctors were using the new system in July, soon after its introduction. The system cost EUR 9 million to implement, all of which came from non-reimbursable EU funding. In the beginning, the system crashed and not all pharmacies in Romania had the needed software installed to check the electronic prescriptions issued by doctors. With training for doctors and the installation of the necessary equipment at pharmacies, the number of e-prescriptions issued could rise by the end of the year, said Vasile Astarastoae, the President of the Medical College of Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com