For the past eight years, more than 1,000 current and retired civil servants as well as their families have visited the Veterans General Hospital in Bangkok for treatment and medicines for chronic health issues like diabetes and high blood pressure.
However, ongoing investigations suggest their health problems are faked as part of a huge corruption scheme.
Financial damage to the hospital, which is funded by taxpayers through the state budget, is estimated at over 1.6 billion baht.
The scandal highlights loopholes in the country’s medical benefits scheme for civil servants and family members, which covers retirement too. Gaps include a lack of post-treatment checks or an integrated database of patients' data.
“We are closely monitoring this case,” said Patricia Mongkhonvanit, director-general of the Comptroller General's Department, responsible for government accounting. “We will file a lawsuit claiming damages.”
Legal proceedings cannot begin, however, until investigations are complete and the agencies involved launch disciplinary action. The government has vowed to conclude the probe before the end of this month.
How the scam operated
Pol Maj Siripong Sritula, assistant secretary-general of the Office of Public-Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), said the scheme involved fraudulent patients obtaining prescriptions for costly medications not on the national list of free drugs.
After being obtained for free, the expensive drugs were then sold on for profit.
“Each fake patient earned an average of 100,000 baht a year,” he said, revealing the results of the PACC investigation. The bogus patients were paid a commission of 10%, he added.
Doctors will usually prescribe off-list medicines only after the standard treatments offered by state healthcare fail to produce satisfactory results.
The fake patients were trained how to answer doctors’ questions and told to eat unhealthy diets prior to blood tests, according to investigators.
Pol Maj General Charoonkiat Pankaew, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said the fraudulent scheme recruited around 600 bogus patients in Lop Buri province, who scammed the hospital under the guidance of team leaders.
At least 1,000 people, including over 100 soldiers – both retired and serving – have been implicated in the scam. Investigators report that some people knowingly participated for financial gain while others were duped.
A team leader of the scam, who identified herself only as “Poo”, admitted she initially joined as a fake patient but gradually developed the skills to recruit and guide a team of fraudsters.
“I started by inviting friends and people in my social circle. Word spread, and others began contacting me [to join the scheme]. After all, they are all poor.”
Members of Poo’s team who faked illness were rewarded with a 10% cut of the value of medicines they managed to claim. They were coached on how to manipulate their test results by consuming sweet fizzy drinks and high-fat foods.
“I myself received 1,000 baht for every team member I recommended,” Poo admitted.
As a recruiter, she also handled travel arrangements for fake patients. She usually used her own car to transport them to the Veterans General Hospital, allowing her to claim a petrol allowance of 3,000 baht per round trip. If multiple team members had hospital appointments on the same day, she would book a van instead.
Blowing the whistle
The scam was exposed by a whistleblower named Passanee (surname withheld), after a junior soldier tried to recruit her into faking illness to claim free medicines.
Instead of going along with the scheme, Passanee took a stand, and convinced the soldier to gather evidence of the corruption that was draining state coffers .
They worked together for over six months to compile a mass of compelling evidence, before submitting it to Parliament.
The War Veterans Organisation of Thailand has also launched an internal probe into the matter, according to its director-general, General Detnitit Luangngamkum.
“Evidence suggests wrongdoing has occurred,” he confirmed, adding that the fraudulent scheme had been operating for nearly a decade before it was exposed.
“I noticed irregularities just a few months after I took on my current role in October 2023. It struck me as odd to see vans bringing 10 to 20 patients at a time from Lop Buri to the hospital, with the same patients coming back repeatedly,” he said.
Tip of the iceberg?
A participant in the scheme said the Veterans General Hospital was unlikely to be the only medical facility targeted by fraudsters in recent years, mentioning a van driver who regularly transported fake patients to Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok.
The PACC confirmed that suspicion, revealing that fake patients were able to obtain free medicines from multiple hospitals because their databases were not linked. Investigators also uncovered instances where fraudsters stole patient identities to claim medical benefits.
The government shelled out over 100 billion baht in medical costs for current and retired civil servants and their family members last year.
Cures for corruption?
The Comptroller General's Department has vowed to prevent the medical-benefit fraud but expressed no intention to tighten current rules.
“We are concerned that stricter rules could end up restricting the rights of innocent people,” the department head explained.
Worawit Kittiwongsunthorn, head of the College of Pharmaceutical and Health Consumer Protection of Thailand (CPHCP) Foundation, explained that the lack of integration between hospitals’ reimbursement databases created loopholes for fraudsters to exploit.
“Growing concern about corruption recently prompted the Comptroller General's Department to summon executives of the 20 hospitals with highest reimbursement value to provide information on their operations. This should help to discourage and deter corrupt practices,” he said.
The National Health Security Office (NHSO), which operates the Universal Coverage Scheme – the largest of the country’s three healthcare programmes – revealed that it has sued multiple patients over suspected fraudulent claims for medicines.
“These patients usually visited hospitals outside of normal working hours and claimed they were in need of emergency care, requesting nasal sprays and other treatments,” NHSO secretary general Dr Jadej Thammatacharee explained.
He said that the NHSO has now developed a system for all its participating hospitals to integrate data and access patient records in real-time, making it easier to detect any irregularities.
