A 68-year-old Dutchman was arrested in the province of North Brabant on Tuesday on suspicion of selling false hospital invoices in Thailand. The investigation and arrest was carried out by the Health Fraud Investigation Department of the Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate under the direction of the Functional Public Prosecutor's Office. The fraud with the false invoices probably amounts to € 130.000.
The suspect sold the hospital invoices to Dutch tourists in Thailand in recent years. The invoices stated costs for hospitalization in Bangkok. The suspect himself lived in Thailand at the time. The Dutch declared the hospital invoices to their health insurer upon their return to their own country. It proceeded to payment.
Five health insurers have reported possible fraud with the false Thai invoices. In response to these reports, the Health Care Fraude Inspectorate SZW has launched an investigation. The investigation has now led to the arrest of the main suspect who was in the Netherlands for a temporary stay. Two homes were searched to collect evidence.
Dozens of Dutch tourists have probably declared false invoices in recent years. Eleven Dutch people are currently being prosecuted for this. It cannot be ruled out that even more people will be prosecuted for this.
Source: Central government
In the past, people sometimes lost a camera or a pair of skis and the travel policies were disadvantaged. Now it is already at this level and complaining about the expensive care in NL. I hope that the law allows a 100% increase on fraud or that the judge imposes a hefty fine.
This kind of practice puts people who really have something in the wrong light when they offer an invoice. And you risk that there will be another call to scrap coverage outside the EU and some treaty countries.
Yes Eric, I totally agree. It is to the disadvantage of people living in Thailand.
Erik completely agrees with you. Such people should lose their health insurance completely, or have to apply for each treatment. (cannot be completely without care) If this is not tackled firmly, it will cost a lot of money for the “gullible” SHAME!!!!
We are glad that we received good help in the hospitals in Thailand and that we were neatly declared for our costs that we had paid. Please let it stay that way.
Corruption and fraud is often mentioned in this blog, but let's take a look in the mirror. It happens to us too!!!
In this context, also read the extensive article in the Algemeen Dagblad:
http://www.ad.nl/binnenland/nederlanders-vieren-vakantie-op-kosten-zorgverzekeraar~a241b62a
I found it absolutely incredible!
Fortunately, those involved have been expelled and it will be difficult for them to take out cheap insurance elsewhere! This may even mean that their car insurance now has to be through a special company, where you have no no-claim and can only insure WA. This way, Boontje gets his wages and the advantage enjoyed is gone and in the future they will (hopefully) pay more.
Today also an article about fraud in case of study delay. Apparently you can insure yourself against the fact that you will be delayed in your studies and therefore miss out on income. This would generate €16.000 per year. Students now feign an accident (bicycle/scooter) and thus claim that money. With the latter, of course, the insurer is also an idiot to come up with such an insurance policy at all. Greed on both sides!
Pay back, fine and maybe exclusion from insurance? Non-health insurance policies also do the latter if someone declares something wrongly, because after all it is pure theft. But that will not be possible…..
And that is why I have been sending proof of debit with the statement for many years: scanning my bank statement / credit card statement has been made simple. The result: faster processing, and never had any questions.
Not surprising that more and more insurance companies demand a lot of evidence, recently had a customer who had to get a certificate at the airport to prove that he had not left the country, of course not that poor person was in hospital in Belgium, even there they trust the thing no more.
Because of those gangsters we pay more and more premium, just take it hard and put it on a blacklist!
I also hope that they will be severely punished, but in the Netherlands at first level, with fraud cases, a judge does not offer very heavily with the hammer. There is no doubt that this type of fraud has a bad effect on honest fellow human beings. So it is important to get well-substantiated bills when incurring medical expenses in Thailand, then it should work out.
Hope they take good care of everyone involved. These types of people make insurance unaffordable and give Thailand another bad name.
Don't feel sorry for this cheater, just let him spend a few years in prison and pay back everything properly.
These types of figures undermine social security, meaning that people who really need help may no longer receive the care they deserve in the long term.
These cheaters need to be dealt with seriously! The cheating is at the expense of people who have to use their insurance.
Fortunately, they managed to find these criminals.
Reclaiming everything and a very heavy fine is an appropriate answer.
This isn't from today. How about those thousands of tourists to your own (far) country? They also became ill, and were able to stay away for a month or more. In such a case, the employer, the travel insurance and the then health insurance fund were the victims. It often involved a family so that the children could not return with all the financial and other consequences.
I come from the insurance industry. You don't want to know how many false claims I've dealt with. from a tenner to 300.000 USD.
The bad guys do indeed ruin it for the good guys.
The insurers must also put their hand in their own bosom. Check each claim with the healthcare provider. Issue of an email.
I think he has abused the name of Bangkok hospital and should be sentenced in Thailand. In the Netherlands he will of course receive 120 hours of service and does not have to show up.
a year of compulsory holiday in Bangkok prison and he will never do it again.
Indeed, sending a nice invitation to the “Bangkok Hilton” and preferably several years.
After that no more therapy is needed
I don't see anywhere in the article that it is about the Bangkok Hospital, they are talking about a hospital in Bangkok.
People, people, don't worry so much, fraud occurs in all layers of our society!
You can worry about this, but this is really "our" care SYSTEM that we have all chosen in this country (if not left, then right).
I remember years ago (2003-2005) this was already done a lot in Pattaya at a certain “kees” who had a bar at the end of Central Pattaya Rd (75 mtr. from the beach road (Thanon Pattaya Sai Nueang)) next to another Dutchman.
This “Kees” also had a bar at the back of that place with a pool table, he also wrote “receipts” with exactly the same Bangkok “paid” stamp as in the article.
This "kees" was always lame every day, and has since passed away, he also came from Brabant, coincidence or not or did this same province inhabitant take over the "business"?
John :: The name of Bangkok Hospital misused ?? Please don't make me laugh. If there is 1 hospital that cheats the foreigners, it's them. Incidentally, there is someone walking around in THAT hospital who, in consultation with you, increases the bill for the insurance a bit and that is absolutely no myth.
Don't say that Medelander acted well, but why are we all suddenly more Catholic than the Pope ???
Talk here regularly with people who are as healthy as a fish but are still rejected before the age of 50 to enjoy their life in Thailand with a nice state pension budget.
As a result of this subject, we are suddenly neat people.
Private hospitals want to make money.
But it was a good thing that the Bangkok Samui hospital existed
to survive accident.
It's pointless to abuse it
.
My first reaction after reading this article and the article in the Algemeen Dagblad was: unbelievable! That people are so demeaning to fraudulently collect money at the expense of well-meaning and good fellow citizens.
I was not familiar with the phenomenon of healthcare fraud (naive, eh!), I read up on the Internet and it turns out that the problem is gigantic. It concerns tens of millions of euros, there are even estimates of half to three billion euros of fraud in the healthcare sector.
This puts this juicy story of fake hospital bills from Thailand in a different light. Of course, the perpetrators must be dealt with, but the mentioned amount of 150.000 euros may not even be called crumbs.
Well,
He should be very happy that he was arrested in the Netherlands and not in Thailand, otherwise they could have accused him in Thailand of having an illegal business, evading taxes, not having a work permit, laundering money, etc. If he then each part gets a few years……….
But from history, doctors, specialists and dentists are the biggest scammers, so € 150.000 is only pinuts.
Too bad the weather puts Thailand in a negative light.
Greetings Nico, from Lak-Si