A SURGEON at Futian No. 2 People s Hospital has been dismissed for falsifying medical records to transfer patients from clinics to inpatient wards for treatment.
Three patients who required only minor surgery at clinics had been admitted by the doctor, who had illegally charged the cost to the city s social insurance fund, the Shenzhen Municipal Social Insurance Fund Management Bureau said Wednesday.
This is the first time the bureau has punished a doctor for breaking social insurance rules. The bureau did not release the doctor s identity.
The bureau also closed the hospital s surgical department to patients covered by social insurance for three months. The same penalty was imposed on Liulian Hospital in Longgang District for overcharging patients and admitting patients with minor ailments. The bureau had recovered 30,000 yuan (US$4,490) the hospital had charged to the social insurance fund.
The bureau also suspended a doctor from writing prescriptions at Shenzhen People s Hospital after he was accused of fraud. Huang Xianfeng, a bureau spokesman, said the doctor wrote prescriptions for people who were not hospital patients, who then took the prescriptions to pharmacies designated by the doctor. The doctor and the pharmacies, which bought the prescriptions at a reduced price, shared the proceeds which were charged to the medical insurance fund.
The practice ... causes card users to lose out because the funds in their personal accounts could be used to pay for clinic and basic costs for inpatient treatment, Huang said.
To curb the practice, the bureau will monitor patients who visit clinics 15 times a month or more and whose monthly medical costs reach 6,000 yuan a month.
In the four years since 2007, a total of 199 medical institutions, clinics and pharmacies had their medical insurance certification canceled or suspended and the bureau recovered 29.54 million yuan in losses. (Han Ximin)
