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Investigators search the apartment and business premises on suspicion of fraud

2021-06-01T03:23:52.419Z


According to reports, companies are billing a lot more corona citizen tests than they actually do. Now the police have searched the building of a company in the Ruhr area that operates several test sites.


Enlarge image

Corona antigen test (archive image)

Photo: Robert Michael / dpa

The Bochum public prosecutor's office for white-collar crime has started investigations on suspicion of billing fraud in corona citizen tests.

This was confirmed by a spokesman for the authority.

The investigation is being carried out against two persons in charge of a company based in Bochum that operates test sites at several locations.

The reason for the investigation was therefore research by WDR, NDR and "Süddeutscher Zeitung" (SZ).

In the Ruhr area, business premises and private apartments have already been searched, as the authority confirmed.

Documents were also confiscated.

The public prosecutor did not want to give the name of the suspicious company.

The federal government's corona test regulation has provided citizen tests since March.

In April, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) billed the costs to the Federal Social Security Office for the first time.

The test centers receive 18 euros per rapid test.

A total of 660 million euros were transferred in April and May.

According to the research, the system invites billing fraud due to a lack of controls.

Random samples at a single test site in Cologne showed that instead of 70 samples actually taken, almost a thousand had been billed.

Samples in Essen and Münster, among others, have unearthed something similar.

SPD criticizes Health Minister Spahn

In view of the suspicion of fraud, the SPD attacks Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU).

“After the masks, now the quick tests.

The management failure in the Ministry of Health has assumed unacceptable proportions, "said the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the SPD parliamentary group, Carsten Schneider.

Spahn ignored warnings and advice from MPs of the coalition factions for the test conditions.

"He is responsible for the responsible use of taxpayers' money and has to stop self-service immediately."

The health policy spokeswoman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Karin Maag, said: »You can't rule out criminal energy anywhere.

However, I have not yet found any reliable numbers. "

Since the centers would have to keep the documents, they assume that the federal states will at least randomly check the number of billed cases and the billing documents received by the associations of statutory health insurance physicians.

"If this should result in irregularities, specific cases must of course be investigated."

pbe / dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-06-01

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