09.02.2024 – 14:52
NDR / Das Erste
Hamburg (ots)
The eye doctor chain Artemis has responded to allegations of possible incitement to billing fraud. The company said in a statement that a manager had been relieved of all duties with immediate effect.
The ARD magazine “Panorama” had previously reported on a seminar that the medical director of Artemis, Kaweh Schayan-Araghi, held together with a billing expert from the company last fall. Accordingly, Schayan-Araghi said at one point that he gave his company’s doctors employed there tips on how to “charge a lot more” for private patients.
The medical lawyer Andreas Spickhoff from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich called the training in the “Panorama” interview “a training to maximize profits” and saw parts of it as a possible incitement to crime, to billing fraud in a particularly serious case. Due to the many doctors involved, a high level of damage can be expected. Artemis employs over 300 ophthalmologists at more than 100 locations throughout Germany.
Artemis did not say which executive was fired. When asked whether it was Schayan-Araghi, the company said it could not make any further statements on personnel issues. The statement on the “Panorama” article states: The “indications of possible individual misconduct” discussed therein are taken very seriously, but so far there is no knowledge of “any irregularities in the provision, documentation or billing of medical services”. Artemis has commissioned an external law firm to investigate the allegations. If they prove to be true, Artemis will draw the necessary consequences.
Link to the “Panorama” report from February 8, 2024: https://ots.de/PX4Tgp
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Original content from: NDR / Das Erste, transmitted by news aktuell