Palliative care as a source of illegal payments: ESBU exposed a scheme worth nearly 8.8 million UAH

 Nearly 8.8 million UAH of budget funds were transferred by the National Health Service of Ukraine to a private clinic based on false reports about the medical services. The organizer of the scheme, the clinic director, and a family doctor misappropriated the money. This concerned payment for services under the "Mobile Palliative Care for Adults and Children" package.

Detectives of the Main Detectives Unit of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine conducted the pretrial investigation.

The investigation established that the organizer developed a scheme to misappropriate budget funds, taking advantage of his familiarity with the mechanism of payment for medical services under the medical guarantees program. To implement the plan, he involved the director of the private clinic and a family doctor, defined their tasks, and coordinated their work. He distributed the received money among the participants of the scheme.

The director of the clinic concluded contracts with the NHSU, approved reports with false information about the volume of provided medical services, and submitted them for payment.

The family doctor simultaneously worked in a private clinic and two municipal medical institutions in the Odesa region. In one of them, she performed the duties of the chief physician and had access to the personal files of subordinate doctors. Their data was used to enter false information into the electronic healthcare system.

In addition, the doctor personally entered inaccurate data about the provision of mobile palliative care on behalf of the private clinic and searched for other persons who were supposed to make such entries.

On the basis of the data entered into the system, reports for the NHSU were formed. Believing that the patients were provided with assistance in full, the service transferred nearly 8.8 million UAH to the clinic's account. According to the investigation, the members of the organized group misappropriated these funds.

The scheme operated from February 2024 to January 2025.

Three suspects were notified of the suspicion. Depending on the role of each, their actions have been qualified under Articles 190, 362, and 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (fraud, unauthorized alteration of information in an automated system, and official forgery).

The pretrial investigation is ongoing. Other persons involved in the scheme are being identified.

Procedural guidance is carried out by prosecutors of the Office of the General Prosecutor. Operational support was provided by employees of the Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police of Ukraine.

We remind you that according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent until their guilt is proven in accordance with the law and established by a court verdict.