“The first time, I was contacted by a headhunter. I was offered 1200 euros net per day, I was stunned. But it was for an associative health center, therefore not for profit, I said: Ok . I then made five centers in the Paris region, different brands, and I saw each time the same fraudulent practices. For me, the health centers are over. "The one who testified here accepted" only if my name is not published, because in this environment there is a real risk to speak ". We will therefore call this witness ophthalmologist Eric. And what he reports is edifying.
“I was offered three times the gain of a replacement in a liberal cabinet! I came across real scams. In some centers, says the doctor, in the morning I arrived and a list of 150, 200 and even 300 patients was waiting for me. I was reassured, telling myself that I would only see thirty or forty. In fact, the others were often taken care of by paramedics ( Editor's note: non-doctors ), notably orthoptists. I did not sign any order, everything was done at the secretariat, but I quickly understood that there was a problem. It has happened that I leave the office and I see patients that I had not received with prescriptions in hand! I protested, because it's taking the risk of not detecting a pathology. "
"In fact," continues Eric angrily, "when the center has taken the patients' Vitale card, it can do what it wants with it; we ophthalmologists, we see nothing since it is the secretaries who are responsible for billing procedures, and patients, who pay nothing, suspect nothing. This is how some patients are billed for unnecessary or fictitious acts, sometimes over 2-3-4 days, when they only came once. If these centers were perfectly honest, do you think they would pay their doctors 1500 euros net per day? "
Doctors relieved of all administration
Dr. Florent Costantini confirms the level of remuneration: “I received an email from a headhunter from the medical recruitment firm Jobergroup. He guaranteed me, he says still dumbfounded, 1200 to 1500 euros net per day, guaranteed patient flow, with complete administrative management of my activity by a secretary; I just had to take care of the patients. I chose to be liberal, it is not to find myself obliged to a productivity which can become dangerous, I refused. But I wonder how they manage to pay such wages. "
But why defraud and especially how to get money out of a non-profit structure? Eric has looked into the matter, he says the goal is purely lucrative. To get the money out, "they don't buy the equipment, they rent it three times the market price to accomplice companies, they pay false consultancy services, pay a much higher rent than normal to a company land that is in the loop ... But apparently everything is clean, "concludes our witness.
