Punishment for rebate MD is on the rise

Four recent rebate rulings 'Full collection amount'

Legal system "reinforcement of penalties to eradicate rebates"

A series of tougher penalties rulings against the medical personnel's illegal rebates have been issued.

 

Once caught, the ruling to collect the full rebate collection has become the trend.

 

Analysts say that the justice department increase the level of rebate punishment.

 

Dailypharm's analysis of the major rulings on drug rebates on the 17th showed that in four recent cases, medical personnels were charged with the amount of rebates they received from pharmaceutical companies in addition to imprisonment or fines.

 

Dr.

 

A, who runs a hospital in Paju, Gyeonggi-do, was charged with receiving ₩15 million for prescribing medicines from a pharmaceutical company and was sentenced to a fine of ₩3 million by the Suwon District Court in September.

 

The court ordered Dr.

 

A to collect ₩100 million in addition to the fine.

 

In October, similar rulings were followed in Suwon and Daegu.

 

The Suwon District Court Seongnam branch decided on a year of imprisonment and a ₩150 million penalty for Dr.

 

B, who operates an ophthalmologist in Ulsan.

 

The additional ₩150 million is the rebate that Mr.

 

B received twice from a pharmaceutical company.

 

The Daegu District Court sentenced doctor C, who received a rebate, to pay a fine of ₩2 million and a penalty of ₩2.65 million.

 

The penalty is also equal to the amount of rebate that Mr.

 

C received from the related pharmaceuticals.

 

Unlike other doctors, Dr.

 

B was sentenced to one year in jail because he demanded more rebates from pharmaceutical companies on the condition that he would increase the size of the existing hospital and increase the volume of drug transactions.

 

The court found that Mr.

 

B was aggressively trying to get a rebate, and gave him to a severe sentence.

 

In November, the Suwon District Court decided to pay a fine of ₩4 million by applying to Dr.

 

D for violating medical law.

 

Dr.

 

D was not accompanied by a punishment, but the ruling said that “It is necessary, but it is clear that it did not collect from an abbreviated order, so the addition of collections in addition to previously sentenced sentences is not permitted in the interpretation of section 457, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act”.

 

the court revealed the reason for not being sentenced.

 

In addition, the Seoul Central District Court ruling, which was made earlier, also shows a trend of strengthening the penalty.

 

In June, the court sentenced Doctor E, who violated the Medical Law, two years probation for one year in prison and two years probation for eight months in jail for a representative of a wholesaler who violated pharmaceutical laws that provided rebates.

 

Four of the five rebate-like judgments were received 100% collection.

 

The other one, which did not order the collection, also revealed a valid basis for which the criminal law does not allow for collection.

 

Article 88 (2) of the current Medical Law allows the collection of medical personnels who have received illegal rebates.

 

Such trends in local jurisdictions show recent trends in penalties for drug rebates.

 

Previously, even if rebates were caught, fines, probation, and imprisonment were mostly imposed, but as the recent rulings show, the government is collecting 100% of the rebates illegally received by medical personnel.

 

The lawyer Jong-sik Woo of the law firm Gyuwon also made the same opinion that “Is it because of the light punishment that the judges are not eradicating the rebate?” Attorney Woo said, “A recent analysis shows that there is a clear trend to strengthen the penalty, recently the ruling on illegal rebates shows that the frequency of collecting 100% of the money received is almost the same”.

 

“The legal basis for the surcharge was from the stage of a dual punishment system.

 

The law was not changed, but the court is raising the surcharge level recently”.

 

“It is analyzed that the Tribunal is moving towards the strengthening of collections to eradicate drug rebates.” he added.