In Germany, she is said to have cheated patients out of 760,000 euros
Missing doctor works in Switzerland
In Pforzheim, Germany, she worked as a doctor for years, then disappeared without a trace. Later she got in touch from Abu Dhabi, now she should work in Switzerland. Meanwhile, the doctor is being investigated. The accusation: billing fraud of around 760,000 euros.
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A doctor who was thought to have disappeared in Germany is now working in Switzerland. The Pforzheim public prosecutor’s office is investigating them for billing fraud. (icon picture)
A dermatologist from Pforzheim (D) disappeared from one day to the next. Not only her former patients in Baden-Württemberg were concerned about the mysterious disappearance, but also the public prosecutor’s office, because they are investigating against her. The reason: She is suspected of billing fraud of around 760,000 euros. Now the woman apparently works in Switzerland.
According to a report by the “Badische Neusten Nachrichten” (BNN), the woman is currently working in a Swiss hospital as a senior doctor in dermatology. The report leaves open which hospital it is.
Signs of life from Abu Dhabi
At the end of 2021, the doctor’s practice in Pforzheim was suddenly closed. At first it was said that the practice was temporarily closed. Later it turned out that the practice, in which the doctor worked for around six years, is permanently closed. For a long time it was unclear why the dermatologist disappeared without a trace. A few weeks after the closure, the woman gave a sign of life: she is in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. There she is recovering from the long-term consequences of a Covid disease.
Meanwhile, the Pforzheim public prosecutor’s office opened proceedings against her. It is about a suspected billing fraud. The sum of around 760,000 euros comes from fees from 2017 to 2020, which the plausibility committee of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) Karlsruhe District Directorate calculated and which were reclaimed by the doctor.
The public prosecutor’s office explained to the “BNN” that the investigations are still ongoing. “However, the extent to which criminal damage has actually occurred is still the subject of ongoing investigations,” says a spokesman.
Up to ten years imprisonment
The procedure began after the KV submitted documents indicating that the doctor might not have billed correctly. Already in 2018, anonymous reports were filed against them.
Because, according to the public prosecutor’s office, “a few thousand transactions” have to be checked, it is assumed that the procedure will continue to drag on. If convicted, the doctor faces up to five years in prison. If you can prove her a particularly serious or commercial fraud, the sentence could increase to ten years imprisonment. The doctor has not yet responded to inquiries from “BNN”. (bab)