Issue of FFP2 masks: pharmacies apparently never specifically checked

In winter 2021, pharmacies gave out FFP2 masks free of charge, the federal government financed this with more than two billion euros. Noisy WDR the accounts of the approximately 20,000 pharmacies have apparently not been specifically checked to this day.

In winter 2021, the federal government spent more than two billion euros on the “free” delivery of FFP2 masks to old and previously ill people and to recipients of social benefits. The word “free” is misleading, because the approximately 2.1 billion euros that were paid to the pharmacies as reimbursement came from tax funds.

“We earned our money stupidly,” admitted a Berlin pharmacist at the time with astonishing frankness. Because the pharmacists were allowed to bill up to six euros for each mask dispensed – the price at which they had previously bought the masks was of no interest to anyone when billing. At that time, pharmacists were able to make enormous profits, because at that time you could buy FFP2 masks for one to two euros each.

High prices, no control?

It is now clear that the pharmacists were not only happy about the astonishingly high reimbursement prices, but also that apparently nobody has since checked whether the number of masks billed was correct. Because purchase receipts had to be presented just as little as the vouchers that pensioners handed in at the pharmacy at the time. Even after repeated inquiries to the Ministry of Health, there is no evidence that the approximately 20,000 pharmacies were ever systematically checked to see whether the number of masks billed was correct.

Around 56 million vouchers have had to be stored in the pharmacies’ storage rooms since winter 2021 as proof that the pharmacies have actually dispensed a total of around 350 million FFP2 masks. Because on the basis of these vouchers, the pharmacies were able to register their claim for reimbursement in an unbureaucratic manner. Merely specifying the amount was sufficient for payment.

trust in pharmacies

The certificates must be kept until the end of 2024 for possible checks. This is what the corresponding ordinance says, which was issued at the end of 2020 under the then Minister Jens Spahn. At that time, it was apparently not regulated whether and how controls should be carried out and who is responsible for them. That was also the intention under Spahn. At the request of WDR A spokesman replied in June 2021: “The Federal Ministry of Health has a high level of trust in the German pharmacists in this regard”. Therefore, a “compulsory examination covering the whole area is not planned.”

An argument that the criminologist Ralf Kölbel from the University of Munich calls “strange”. While the ministry placed a great deal of trust in the pharmacies, the concern about the greed of the citizens was apparently so great that a whopping twelve million euros were invested in the forgery-proof printing of the entitlement certificates – and the delivery of the vouchers in the middle of the second corona wave was therefore changed weeks delayed. On the other hand, a simple report to the pharmacy data center was sufficient for the reimbursement of costs for the issue of the masks – with payment amounts averaging more than 100,000 euros per pharmacy.

Who is responsible?

Today’s minister, Karl Lauterbach, used to be a harsh critic of inadequate controls over the ministry’s billion-euro programs. As Spahn’s successor, he leaves on request WDR and SZ now emphasize that it is “an important concern to him that possible billing fraud is consistently pursued in all cases”. The Federal Office for Social Security (BAS), which is subordinate to the ministry, is responsible for controls.

Specifically, it says: “The stored data should be checked by the BAS and, if there are suspected discrepancies, tracked by the state authorities as supervisors of the pharmacies.” However, the authority subordinate to him declared that he was not responsible and said succinctly: “The statements you quoted from the BMG are not correct.”

So the search for those responsible for the controls becomes a farce. When the ministry was asked again, there was suddenly no longer any mention of a control order to the BAS. Instead, it only says: “The BAS took over the billing. The pharmacies were obliged to keep the vouchers.”

And: “The state authorities would be responsible for checks in the event of suspected billing fraud.” A suspicion that the state authorities and local public prosecutor’s offices could investigate can only arise if billed and kept certificates of entitlement are actually compared by someone in random samples. This is clearly not the case. And so it is no longer surprising that the ministry is not aware of a single “case of incorrect accounting” under Lauterbach either.

For the criminologist Kölbel, who has dealt intensively with billing fraud in the healthcare sector in his research, this is an alarming finding: “Many of these offenses have to be explained by the fact that people are sure they can get away with them. And vice versa in this area achieve fairly good regulatory effects with a high density of controls.” Any tax official can confirm that: “Especially for people who have status and wealth to lose, the fear of being caught definitely plays a role.”

Criticism also of billing practices at test centers

Missing checks on the Ministry of Health’s programs worth billions are not an isolated case. Just a few days ago, the Federal Court of Auditors sharply criticized the billing practice for the corona test centers and the checks that have been inadequate to date.

All of this caused a shake of the head on Thursday last week, when around 100 detectives, health experts and politicians met in Berlin for a conference on the “health care crime scene”. The impulse at the event was provided by Jörg Engelhard, head of the billing fraud commissioner at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Berlin. “As criminalists, we know that it’s not draconian punishments that keep people from committing crimes, it’s the risk of detection,” Engelhard said. But that is exactly what was signaled to the pharmacists that they would not be checked.

In the discussion, LKA man Engelhard also gave vent to his anger at the new Minister of Health: “We had high hopes that the change of government would also lead to a turning point,” said Engelhard. “For me personally, it’s particularly bitter to have to say that I didn’t really notice this turning point. It more or less didn’t happen.”