The arrest of no less than 16 individuals allegedly involved in two separate cases of fraud against the Greek national healthcare system to the tune of 3.5 million euros raised eyebrows in the country, with the relevant health minister on Tuesday saying an another safeguard will now be added to the e-prescription system.
Speaking on a local news radio program, Minister Adonis Georgiadis said an additional OTP step would be tacked on to the process of electronic prescriptions, whereby the apparent beneficiary of the prescription will have to approve the latter with their mobile phone.
The 16 suspects include physicians, pharmacy owners and a purported middleman. The entire group of suspects was arrested and is held in custody pending a pre-trial arraignment on various felony and misdemeanor charges.
Georgiadis, one of the more outspoken members of the Cabinet, also said assets of the suspects have been “frozen” pending the ongoing judicial investigation.
“Despite the electronic prescription system, it’s possible, by using the social security number of an individual who can’t monitor their subscriptions and file a complaint, to write up such prescriptions,” he said.
Suspects allegedly “phished” for social security numbers of people with disabilities, jailed convicts, foreign nationals who are legal residents in the country and others in order to issue hundreds of unnecessary prescriptions, usually of expensive drugs, pocketing the money from the national healthcare system and then “recycling” the medicines in the local market and for export.
Using the “one-time password” (OTP) method for e-prescriptions is similar to approving web banking transactions.
