Healthcare Fraud and Abuse in Europe

Abstract

This chapter explores the significant problem of healthcare fraud in Europe, which in the UK alone is estimated at £1.27 billion a year or more than 30% of the European Union healthcare budgets. It emphasizes the difficulties of identifying the predominant “European approach” on the ethical, definitional, and operational challenges that make healthcare fraud difficult to define, identify, police, and prevent. It also describes different healthcare fraud problems in European countries that vary in historical, cultural, and political circumstances. This chapter discusses the significance of how European states manage the financing of their healthcare systems and payment of healthcare professionals as it affects the forms of abusive conduct that might occur. It also mentions the UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Nordic Countries as states vulnerable to procurement corruption as stated by Transparency International.