In what direction are the EOPYY investigations now moving and what does the director of the Organization, Theano Karpodini, declare in “R”. Antipsychotics, antidiabetics, anti-inflammatories and nutritional supplements top the list of over-prescribed drugs. The heavy bells on the first 297 doctors found to be illegal since the beginning of the year and the intervention of Justice.
By NESTOR DIMARS – SOURCE: Realnews
The structure and “identity” of the circuits that infest the sensitive area of medicines and the money of insurance companies, extracting huge profits, is revealed to Realnews by the director of the EOPPY, Theano Karpodini. The certainty of the existence of the circuits resulted from the continuous and many months of close monitoring of the doctors who sign the prescriptions, but also of the pharmacists who then execute them. Results have already emerged from this investigation, as more than 1,100 doctors and others involved are the target of the controls, as stated by the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, speaking to ANT1 and Nikos Hatzinikolaou’s show “Face to Face”.
“Over 1,100 doctors and pharmacists are currently being investigated. It is 50 million euros the cost of the drugs that are written annually and should not be written. We will catch them, they will not escape. We have new weapons, they are algorithms and technical intelligence”, emphasized the Minister of Health.
Of these healthcare professionals being investigated by the auditors, a total of 297 were found to have illegally prescribed drugs in the first eight months of 2024 alone. “We found that a large proportion of the overprescribing cases involved specific formulations, of specific companies, directed to specific pharmacists by doctors we identified. In recent months, strict controls were carried out, of which 297 cases of illegal prescriptions were detected, with a large financial loss. The corresponding fines have been charged to those who have been detected, and so on,” says Th. Karpodini in “R”.
“It is important to emphasize that the offending doctors have a certain way of acting. Antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, analgesics, antipsychotics, preparations for diabetes and slimming, tranquilizers, iron, magnesium preparations and vitamins are prescribed in all AMKAs”, adds the director of EOPYY. According to the information, the most drugs recorded to be prescribed illegally are antipsychotics, antidiabetics, anti-inflammatories, as well as some of the expensive nutritional supplements.
The ways of action
The authorities’ investigations have revealed two modes of operation of the circuits. In the first case, the doctors prescribe and then share with the pharmacists the money from the liquidation of the prescriptions. In the second case, however, the drugs are smuggled, as the doctors write the prescriptions and then the pharmacists promote the drugs to circuits that illegally export them to foreign countries. In this way their profits are multiplied. Doctors and pharmacists recently found to be illegal face significant administrative penalties and fines. Already, doctors have been deprived of the right to prescribe, while pharmacists have been deprived of the right to carry out prescriptions. At the same time, all of these cases are expected to soon go before the courts.
According to “R” information, there were cases when the audacity of the circuits left the EOPYY inspectors surprised. And this is because, although doctors were called to be checked for their prescriptions, both by the EOPYY and the Financial Police, they continued undeterred to overprescribe drugs.
One in two
EOPYY emphasizes that approximately 34,000 calls are sent monthly for explanations to doctors about the number of prescriptions they carry out. Therefore, calls for explanations are sent to almost one in two who practice the medical profession in our country, as there are a total of 68,500 doctors in Greece. Of course, in the vast majority of these cases, doctors adequately justify why they proceeded with the specific prescriptions. Only a small percentage of the 34,000 doctors who receive calls each month are called for further explanation. However, those who far exceed the limits are put on a special watch list, receiving a special report, in which it is noted that based on their specialty they have exceeded by a certain percentage the average prescription that is justified under normal conditions.
An important role in the fight against over-prescriptions is played by the cooperation with the Social Security Electronic Government Agency (EDIKA), which allows checks to be carried out in real time, i.e. at the moment the prescriptions are written. In this way, a doctor was identified who systematically prescribed from 1:00 to 4:00 in the morning, which raised the alarm. At the same time, cases where large quantities of drugs were prescribed in specific AMKAs were also recorded. Monitoring is carried out around the clock, and there is no way to delete the records of a person who prescribes at a suspicious rate.
The champions
Last Wednesday, at a press conference at the Ministry of Health, several cases of doctors from all over Greece who were found to be illegal were mentioned. Among them, a pathologist in Glyfada stands out, who prescribed 221 preparations to his mother’s AMKA, with the prescriptions being carried out by a specific pharmacy. At the same time, a pathologist at the Health Center of Lesvos prescribed 705 preparations for her husband, her two daughters and herself, with a total value of 1.2 million euros. The pathologist was fined 800,000 euros, while it is estimated that she made a profit of 400,000 euros in 2024 alone.
Also, a cardiologist in Nea Michaniona prescribed 500 drugs to two foreigners, a pediatrician in Thessaloniki wrote 300 drugs and 1,350 pieces to four children who are members of a sports club, filling all the prescriptions in a central pharmacy, while an orthopedist in Patras wrote 1,760 pieces for anti-inflammatory in four patients.
The use of the services of IDIKA, through the AMKA of the patients and the EOPYY that controls the doctors, allows the Authorities to identify specific violations. These mainly concern the identification of prescriptions containing unusually large quantities of drugs, prescriptions covering long periods of time, beyond usual clinical practice and medical instructions, unusually frequent renewal of prescriptions without a clear medical justification, concentration of prescriptions in specific pharmacies and frequent prescribing in specific patients without clear medical justification.
Read the Realnews article here and here
Source: www.enikos.gr
