Fraud with corona citizen tests: damage apparently in the billions - investigators complain about "errors in the system"

Created: 05/23/2022, 23:11

By: Marcus Giebel

Apparently things don't always go right here: Corona test centers seem to attract scammers.

© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa

Various parties earn money from citizen tests in the corona pandemic.

It also seems to attract scammers.

The state could suffer billions in damage.

Munich - Every crisis is always an opportunity or at least an opportunity.

The corona pandemic is no exception.

Often, however, a modicum of unscrupulousness is required to truly become a winner.

This is the case with the dubious mask deals of some politicians or influencers as well as with the reports of ghost tests, which were never carried out.

The bill then has to be paid by the state and ultimately by the taxpayer.

And that could be really lavish.

As the

reports, cheating in citizen tests alone can result in damage of more than one billion euros.

The police investigators would assume this sum, as

,

and

want to know.

Corona citizen tests open the door to fraud: investigators criticize “errors in the system”

According to information from the Federal Office for Social Security, around 10.3 billion euros were spent nationwide on citizen tests by the end of April.

Jörg Engelhard heads an investigative commissioner for billing fraud in the health care system at the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA).

According to him, there are currently 380 investigations against test site operators in the capital alone.

The big problem is the laxly organized controls, so a high number of unreported cases is to be feared.

Which means that billions in damage is anything but utopian.

In the report, Engelhard refers to a “fault in the system”: The Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) get a small piece of the cake for every billed citizen test.

Exactly: 3.5 percent for payment and control.

As a result, the KVs would cut their income with each discovery of a fake test.

Fraud in the Corona test center in Cologne?

Center reports many tests but hardly any positive cases

The research network of

,

and

in Cologne uncovered a concrete suspected case.

There are noticeably few positive results to be reported.

The situation in mid-May is given as an example: while an average of five percent of the tests per day in North Rhine-Westphalia were effective, the rate at this center was only 0.2 percent.

A vanishingly small proportion.

The test center reports “a very high number of citizen tests to the NRW Ministry of Health”.

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Ghost tests in Cologne?

The research team counts itself on site and uncovers differences

,

and

, who had become suspicious,

would therefore have counted themselves on site on individual days.

On Friday, May 13, 52 pedestrians and 101 cars were listed, and the test center reported 2,670 citizen tests.

The following Monday it looked like this: 55 pedestrians and 123 cars were registered by the journalists, and 2186 citizen tests were reported.

The managing director did not answer the question for an explanation for these differences even after several days.

It was only pointed out that it would take “a longer period of time” to “reasonably and reliably research the test numbers for the two days”.

However, the day after the questions were sent, only 230 tests were reported to the Ministry of Health - the lowest value of the year.

Corona test site in Cologne: Apparently more than 2.8 million euros were taken in 2022 alone

The

calculates that the test center in Cologne should have taken around 2.8 million euros with the 234,000 tests reported so far in 2022.

According to its own statements, the Cologne City Health Department “discovered the striking positive rate and the consistently high number of reports as early as the beginning of October 2021”, and the test site was also reported to the North Rhine Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians on January 26th and April 23rd.

According to the report, she did not want to comment on individual test sites.

Testing for Corona: Swabs are taken from the nose or throat.

© Kira Hofmann/dpa

Irregularities in corona test centers: In many federal states, no case has yet been reported

It is already the fifth case in connection with citizen tests in which the research team uncovered irregularities.

It was about too many reported tests, excessive material cost bills, test centers that did not report a single positive test, and test centers maintained by high schools in which students were tested at federal expense - although significantly cheaper self-tests were mandatory.

An inquiry by the research team to all KVs revealed that they had not yet reported a case in Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Saarland, Hesse and Thuringia, in Bavaria there were 21, in Baden-Württemberg 14 and in North Rhine-Westphalia seven , the representations in Brandenburg and Lower Saxony each passed on a report to the public prosecutor's office.

Also interesting: According to its own statements, Hesse has reclaimed a total of 4.9 million euros from 164 test centers, for Hamburg and Saarland there is a big zero.