ASTANA, July 1. /TASS/. The Financial Monitoring Agency in the Mangystau Region of Kazakhstan is investigating a case of what it believes to be medical insurance fraud, where private clinics reported some 200 men getting operations that are only possible for women, the agency said.
According to the agency, in the Ibn Sina and Sofie med group clinics, employees, "when coding medical services for male diagnoses of varicocele entered the code designated for a high-tech operation meant for women - endovascular embolization of the vessels of the pelvic organs and uterine arteries."
Investigators believe the scheme allowed the clinics to bill services at prices ten times higher than those actually provided, causing losses of 221 million tenge (more than $460,000) to the health insurance fund.
This is not the first time that such abuses in the health insurance system have come to light in Kazakhstan. Last September, payments from the pension fund for dental treatment were stopped after an embezzlement scheme by dental clinics was uncovered, where in one case money was transferred to install 65 dental implants for a single patient at once. This January it was established that more than 768,000 men were allegedly screened for women's diseases at the expense of the medical insurance fund. There were also cases of services rendered for deceased patients. Labor and Social Protection Minister Svetlana Zhakupova was subsequently fired.