A Munich dentist is said to have incorrectly billed treatments for years and thus cheated the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists out of millions. The 60-year-old fully admitted the allegations on the first day of the trial before the district court in Nuremberg, a judicial spokeswoman said on Monday.
The general public prosecutor’s office in Nuremberg, which is responsible for fraud in the health care system, accuses the man of having collected money for services in 25 cases between 2014 and 2020, most of which he had not provided. This resulted in damage of almost 3.2 million euros. The motive for the billing fraud remained unclear even after the defendant’s statement on Monday.
According to the indictment, in many cases the patients only came to his practice once because of an emergency. The accused is said to have read their insurance cards himself and then billed for treatments in quarters in which they were not even with him. He is also said to have claimed benefits for employees of the practice or relatives during periods in which they should not have been with him at all.
The accused admitted in court that he had manipulated the data, said the judicial spokeswoman. In some cases, however, he did not bill for treatments that he actually carried out. As a reason, the 60-year-old testified in court that the accounts were his weakness. He handed over his practice in Munich to a successor at the beginning of the year.
The district court has scheduled seven days of hearing for the process. Several patients and employees of the practice should testify. After the extensive confession of the accused, the procedure could now take less time.