Pharmacist falsified referrals to defraud Medicare: tribunal

A pharmacist has been deregistered for using fake GP referrals for medication reviews to defraud Medicare in a bid to meet sales targets in her pharmacy.
The UK-trained pharmacist submitted 129 fraudulent claims for Home Medication Reviews between May 2015 and September 2016, according to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The pharmacist was not accredited to conduct reviews and falsified the claims by using the name of an unwitting colleague who was registered to perform the reviews, it found.
The required GP referrals were also falsified, with doctors confirming after the fraud came to light that they had not provided referrals for the reviews.