So, how do you go about ripping off the NHS?
You set up a Pharmaceutical supplies company.
Don’t bother with everyday drugs – they have a set pricelist.
Go for ‘special drugs’ – they are for patients who can’t use
the ordinary stuff – patients who have allegies or other problems in taking
conventional medication.
Sell the drugs to pharmacists but don’t just send an invoice
– send two invoices.
One is for what you are really going to charge the
Pharmacist, the second invoice is the one the Pharmacist declares to the NHS.
Kerching!!!
The problem is it happens to be fraud.
The story comes from ‘Public Service’, but they lifted it
from The Daily Telegraph (21/6/13);
“Pharmaceuticals
companies have been accused of colluding with pharmacists to ensure the NHS
pays far more for its drugs than it should, it has been alleged, resulting in
hundreds of millions of pounds of public money being wasted.The Health
Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that if this is true it is "appalling"
and ordered the alleged fraud to be investigated by NHS Protect.
The claims
relate to 'special' prescription drugs that are not controlled by national NHS
price regulations. The allegations were made after undercover journalists
working for The Daily Telegraph secretly recorded drugs company representatives
apparently saying they would raise an invoice for twice the price of the drugs
so that the pharmacist could overcharge the NHS.
According
to the newspaper Dhruv Patel, head of unlicensed pharmaceutical sales from
Pharmarama International, said: "You get an invoice with a price which you
stamp and submit [to the NHS]." The chemist would then be given a
"credit note" by the company which "will show what you pay us
and that's 50 per cent less than the value of the invoice".
And Zaheer
Mushtaq, an executive from Temag, was quoted as saying: "There are some
customers that are on the rebate system. They have a before and after discount
price. Almost like a duplicate invoice if you like – so they can see the amount
of discount that they're getting. Generally what would happen, the pharmacy
will then just generally put the higher one in… and then obviously leave the
remainder as the profit for the pharmacy."
In response
to the newspaper reports, a spokesperson for Pharmarama International said:
"Our initial enquiries suggest strongly that the issue at stake relates to
inappropriate and over-enthusiastic claims made at a sales meeting."
And
Magdalena Kulbat of Temag said: "It would be totally unrepresentative to
make any suggestion that we are involved in any sort of practice to unfairly
charge the NHS."
p
BOOK ‘EM
DANNO !
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
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