Vic hospitals 'fake patients for money'

Vic hospitals 'fake patients for money'Victorian hospitals are falsely trapping people in order to suck cash out of them, they subject them to home care programs to extract millions of dollars in regard of funds, as reported by a senior doctor.

A Department of Health study released showed that health care units were accusing the Hospitals in regard of the Home program, as stated by Dr Michael Montalto, the director of the program at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Dr Montalto stated to The Age newspaper “the review did not lay blame at any party, but said some hospitals were admitting patients to the program knowing the patients were being sent home with no further need for medical care to get extra funding”.

He further added that health care is considered to be a very creative field offering a wide approach in the same area. He said, "They (the report's authors) certainly haven't pointed the finger at anyone, but they did put a lot of effort into clarifying admission guidelines and that has made a difference."

It is stated that than 30,000 patients were subjected to the program every year coming out of hospitals other than the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne.

But Dr Montalto claimed that the program came in handy despite the fact that the comments didn’t comprise of the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

A Victorian Department of Health spokesman explained that the health care units are making use of the updated admission norms with respect to the program starting July and that audits of program admissions would carry on till the coming year.

In the start of 2010 and with continued months of refusal of the persisting problem, Health Minister Daniel Andrews reported about the fraudulent reporting of hospital activity undergoing with respect to the bonus funding amount.