Cashing in with a system

Checkbook doctor is now out of a hospital job

Money for an earlier surgery appointment or better treatment - the LGA now wants to take rigorous action against this.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Christof Birbaumer / Kronenzeitung, stock.adobe.com)

The unscrupulous cashing in of doctors who had operated for money in Lower Austrian provincial hospitals is now being rigorously stopped by the provincial health agency. It even cost one leading doctor his job.

A primary surgeon in the provincial capital had collected up to 5000 euros from his patients. Miraculously, they were then quickly put under the knife - despite long waiting times. But the cashing in was not enough: the doctor, now banned from the operating theater, is said to have explained to a music teacher from the Far East that all this normally costs 15,000 euros, but that he only had to pay 5000 euros.

However, this immoral behavior apparently has a system: Because - as was reported from insider circles - fake patients were even enrolled to bridge the waiting times, who were then exchanged for real "paying" patients if the worst came to the worst.

We do not tolerate violations and investigate every single case. If money has been taken for operations, there will be consequences.

Mag. Gerhard Dafert, Vorstand der LGA

Not a millimeter of leeway
According to research by the "Krone" newspaper, the many decent doctors are now daring to come out of the closet and report that orthopaedists and trauma surgeons in Lower Austria, for example, are operating in private Viennese clinics despite the competition clause and are being paid to do so. The new board of the Provincial Health Agency (LGA) is now taking radical action against "unhygienic conditions".

Whistleblower platform:
www.landesgesundheitsagentur.at/hinweisgeben

"Medical necessity is the deciding factor in the allocation of surgery appointments. If there is any indication that this requirement is being breached, we take it seriously." This is because there are clear compliance rules that do not allow a millimeter of leeway. "We do not tolerate such behavior. In this specific case, we parted ways with the employee," emphasizes Elisabeth Bräutigam, Member of the Management Board.