DSI seeking refund from hospitals

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DSI seeking refund from hospitals
By Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation 2011-04-13

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is standing by its probe which reported irregularities by two state hospitals in their medical benefit reimbursements for civil servants.

The hospitals must return the money to the Comptroller General's Department if another probe conducted by the department also finds the hospitals had engaged in improper practices, DSI deputy directorgeneral Sansern Palawatwichai said.

"We have questioned several sources from these hospitals and investigated all documents relating to the charges. Finally, we found irregularities in the amounts of money paid on prescriptions," he said.

"The ComptrollerGeneral's Department staff also provided us with clues to the [charging anomalies]," he added.

The DSI previously reported finding that two state hospitals in the Northeast had spent irreglar amounts of money in prescribing antihyperlipidemics and drugs to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease.

The ComptrollerGeneral's Department found medical spending on drugs for civil servants had jumped drastically during the past few years in these two hospitals. The department had asked the DSI to investigate the two institutions.

The DSI's inspectors found there were no patients' signatures or fingerprints on documents that were used to receive medicine from hospital staff.

Nakhon Phanom publichealth chief Dr Pira Areerat reaffirmed yesterday there was no corruption at Renoo Nakhon Hospital.

He said between January 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009, the hospital was reimbursed just Bt5.99 million by the ComptrollerGeneral's Department for medical bills incurred by civil servants and their family members.

He added that the hospital allowed the patients' relatives to pick up medicine because it was difficult for some patients to travel.

Meanwhile, Sappasithiprasong Hospital said the amount of drugs prescribed had soared as services expanded and the number of patients grew.

Sappasithiprasong Hospital's director Dr Manas Kanoksilp said there were no regulations which required a patient's relatives to present their signatures to receive drugs from the hospital.

DSI chief Sansern said the ComptrollerGeneral's Department has insisted to DSI the regulation still existed.

He added that if the hospitals decided not to return the money to the ComptrollerGeneral's Department, they should conduct their own probes to find the wrongdoers who had caused the irregularities in the prescriptions for civil servants.

Then the hospitals should file civil lawsuits against wrongdoers and ask them to return the money to the department. However, Sansern said the DSI did not intend to uncover corruption cases nor file criminal law suits against the hospitals or wrongdoers.

The DSI merely wanted hospitals to stop the soaring state medical expenses caused by the practices over prescriptions.

"That's all we wanted to do," he said.

The DSI will send its investigation report to the Public Health Ministry and the ComptrollerGeneral's Department to conduct another investigation or propose disciplinary punishment against wrongdoers.