Waste, Fraud and Corruption in Healthcare: Global Strategies to Tackle a Global Problem

The World Health Organisation’s latest estimate of global healthcare expenditure is US $ 5.7 trillion.

The World Health Report of 2010 on Health Systems Financing: the Path to Universal Coverage (WHO, 2010) identified 10 major causes of inefficiency and the costs they imposed on health systems. Combined, the report estimates, they might result in “waste” of up to 30-40 % of all health resources. 

One of these major causes was identified as fraud. 

According to the  2011 Report on the Financial Cost of Healthcare Fraud (Center for Counter Fraud Studies, Portsmouth, November 2011), it is likely that around US $ 415 billion is lost globally to healthcare fraud.

This is enough to build more than 2.300 new hospitals (at developed world prices).

Lives are at stake : every dollar saved from fraud could be used to ensure that people have access to more or better healthcare, and could prevent people from staying ill longer or from dying.

This presentation will elaborate on the nature and the extent of healthcare fraud and corruption worldwide.

Next a comprehensive method to tackle these phenomena ,as promoted by the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network, will be presented with reference to the challenges encountered and successful international best practices.