Insurance fraud: how three doctors placed the bodies of dead cancer patients in staged traffic accidents to swindle $225,000

by Michael Woodhead
In a sophisticated and ghoulish scam, three doctors at an Anhui hospital used the bodies of recently deceased cancer patients in staged traffic accident in order to claim thousands of dollars in insurance payouts.
The doctors who worked in the intensive care unit of Lingbi Hospital were part of a gang of seven, including former insurance company employees, who used the bodies of cancer patients to swindle insurance companies out of 1.4 million yuan ($225,000) in payments for 42 fraudulent claims.
The doctors used their contacts to identify terminally ill cancer patients, who they would then arrange to have insurance policies for accidental death taken out. After they died, the doctors did not carry out the usual death certificates, but instead shipped the bodies to locations where they set up traffic accidents, often involving motorbikes or scooters. When police and emergency services arrived on the scene they would declare the victim dead due to a traffic accident, and the insurance companies would pay out on their policies.
However, authorities became suspicious when a large number of traffic accident claims were made in a short period. When they set up an investigation, they found the same three doctors - and their relatives - were involved in all the claims.
The doctors have now been arrested for insurance fraud and suspended from their positions at the Anhui Lingbi hospital.

Six of the top medical news stories from China

1. China has a huge shortage of midwives, and would need a further 800,000 to meet the WHO standard of one for every thousand women of child-bearing age, according to a new report. Health officials say the problem will worsen as China adopts a two child policy.

2. Efforts to control pneumococcal disease and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) in children by vaccination are failing due to low immunisation rates and delayed immunisation, a study from Shanghai shows. A review of vaccination records for 28,000 children up to the age of seven found that 51% had one dose of Hib vaccine and 11.4% had one dose of pneumococcal vaccine. Only 8.2% of children had Hib vaccine at the right time and only 0.5% had timely pneumococcal vaccine. Rates were particularly poor for migrant children, the study found.

3. Rates of hypertension have increased in China and yet treatment and control of the condition remain poor, according to researchers from Shandong. In a study of more than 4000 people they found that the incidence of hypertension increased from 2.9 per 100,000 people in 1991–1997 to 5.3 in 2004–2009 Antihypertensive treatment and control rates for hypertension were 5.7% and 1.7% in 1991–1997 and 19.9% and 7.6% in 2004–2009, respectively.

4. The rate of disabilities from road crashes in China has skyrocketed as the number of cars on the road has increased over the last two decades. The incidence rate for road traffic disabilities increased over time from 1.50 per 100,000 people in 1980 to 11.2 per 100 000 persons in 2005, according to Professor Zheng Xiaoying of the Institute of Population Research, Peking University.

5. Malaria is still a major problem in central China especially during floods and rainy periods of the summer. A study from Mengcheng County, Anhui found that there were 3683 malaria were notified during the study period of May to October 2007 Most of the cases occurred a week to a month after flooding and waterlogging. Public health action should be taken to control the potential risk of malaria epidemics after wet weather, the researchers from Shandong University said.

6. The recent outbreaks of H7N9 avian influenza also resulted in many mild and asymptomatic infections as well as severe life threatening cases, researchers from Guangdong have reported. Their surveillance program noted 21 cases of infection in Guangzhou, China in 2013 and 2014, of which several were mild or asymptomatic infection. Family clusters occurred, suggesting limited person-to-person transmission of the H7N9 virus, they said.

China's 60 million "left behind" children face neglect and poor mental health

by Michael Woodhead
More than 60 million Chinese children have been 'left behind' by rural migrants who move to cities and these children suffer from neglect and mental health problems, a new study has shown.
Research conducted by Dr Zhao Xue of the Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University has found that almost 60% of children in the rural areas were 'left behind'. This was a much higher number than expected and reflected China's "explosive growth" and shift to urban centres.
The survey of almost 1700 'left behind' children in rural Anhui found that they had higher levels of neglect, higher levels of social anxiety,  lower family function and poor quality of life compared to  children who lived with their parents. The problems were worse for girls perhaps because in Chinese society they have lower status than boys and thus get little attention, receive less physical and emotional support and have worse lives than boys, the researchers said.
However, left behind children tended to have lower rates of physical abuse than children who lived with thir parents. This might be becuse the escaped the "education by sticks" beatings from parents, the study authors suggested.
"These findings suggest that "left behind children' are currently in a relatively disadvantaged situation in Changfeng county and require more help from the local government and society to improve their life environment," they concluded.
The findings are published in Acta Paediatrica.

Anhui city offers 'no commission' medicines to locals

The city of Wuhu in Anhui says its two year experiment in offering cost-price medications through hospitals has been a great success in making medical treatment affordable and eliminating kickbacks that plagued the former commission system. The city says its residents have saved over 200 million renminbi under the new system that stops hospitals from charging markups on medicines. The scheme was started two years ago on a limited range of medications and is now to be extended to high costs areas such as cardiac and arthritis medicines and sedatives.
According to the Wuhu News, the 'zero commission' scheme has eliminated the 'grey market' that existed between pharmaceutical wholesalers and hospitals. Under the new system, suppliers must tender for contracts that are open and guarantee to supply medicines at a fixed price for a one year period. Savings are passed on to the public. The authorities say their scheme has switched from one in which hospitals earn money from drugs to one in which they relieve the burden of the public. One of the other benefits of the scheme is that is has uncoupled prescribing from financial incentives, and thus promoted more rational treatment, the local health department says.

Hospital attacker gets life sentence

A hospital attacker with a mental disorder was sentenced to life imprisonment after a fatal assault at a hospital in East China's Anhui province last November, said a local court Tuesday.
Cai Chunfeng, 42, committed the crime of intentional homicide when he stabbed medical staff members on November 13, 2012 at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, according to the Hefei Intermediate People's Court.
Cai was suspicious of the medical staff as he felt uncomfortable after receiving an enema and skin test before an operation, the court said.
He killed one nurse and injured four other medical staff, according to the court.
Cai was identified as having a paranoid-type mental disorder on April 16 and had diminished criminal responsibility at the time of the crime, according to the expert testimony institute of the Shanghai Mental Health Center.
Source: China Daily

Caesarean risks disturb Chinese mothers longing for second child

Relaxation of China's one-child policy both delights and worries Wang Jingjing, who gave birth to a boy three years ago by Caesarean section and now yearns for a second child.
"I have consulted many obstetricians, but still can't make the decision on being pregnant again," said Wang, a white-collar employee in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province.
Like Wang, many Chinese mothers pleased by the loosening of the birth policy are now worried about the possibility that the Caesarean section they had might jeopardize a second child.
Last month, the government proposed allowing urban couples to have two children -- as long as either the husband or the wife is an only child. Previously, the policy required both of them to be a single child.

Baby wakes in crematorium after being certified dead at Anhui hospital

A Chinese baby that had been declared dead by a hospital was saved from cremation when it started crying at a funeral parlor in East China's Anhui province on Wednesday morning.

The baby boy, less than one month old, was sent back immediately to the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital for emergency treatment after he was found alive by a staff from the funeral parlor in Hefei, the provincial capital.

The Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital had issued a death certificate for the boy. He would have been cremated under normal procedures, according to the Hefei Municipal Funeral Parlor.

The baby had suffered from congenital respiratory system malformation since birth and was critically ill. His parents agreed on November 12 to give up his medical treatment, according to a staff member from the hospital.

"Because the baby still had life signs, we continued to give him transfusion to maintain his life for humanitarian reasons," said the staff member on condition of anonymity.

The reasons for the baby being mistakenly confirmed dead need further scrutiny, according to the staff member.

The baby boy is still receiving emergency treatment at the hospital.

A doctor and a nursing worker who were on duty on Wednesday and judged responsible for the accident have been suspended from work and laid off respectively, according to the hospital.

It is investigating the case and said it will release the results to the public in time.

Source: China Daily

Nine patients infected with hepatits C at Anhui hospital

Nine  people are believed to have contracted hepatitis C in a hospital in Huainan City, Anhui Province, local health officials said.
Of the 75 patients who underwent dialysis treatment in the city's Xinhua Hospital, nine have been confirmed of hepatitis C infection and another 21 were also tested positive.
Initial investigation reveals that they got infected in the hospital. Further probe is under way to find the cause, Xinhua News Agency reported today.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Schistosomiasis a huge and overlooked problem in 'non endemic' areas of China

Migrants are spreading schistosomiasis to non-endemic areas

by Michael Woodhead
Urgent action is needed to improve control of schistosomiasis which is out of control in areas of China that are supposed to have no endemic disease, experts in parasitology have said.
China has an effective system of screening and treatment that has been set up in endemic areas  for schistosomiasis, which is caused by trematode blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma, says Dr Zhou Xiao-Nong of the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases at the China Centres for Disease Control.
However, a recent case in a non-endemic area showed that even patients with advanced disease are unable to get adequate and timely diagnosis  and treatment in many parts of China, he says. This especially applies to migrant farmers workers who may travel from endemic to non-endemic areas, says Dr Zhou.
He cites the example of a woman from a nonendemic area within the Anhui Province of China who had advanced schistosomiasis. During a period of one and a half months, the patient went through two hospitals, one preventive institute, and two regional schistosomiasis control stations, three of which she had been admitted into for medical treatments. Although the patient was not misdiagnosed from the beginning, she did go through five medical or health service facilities in pursuing medical treatment, covering a distance of nearly 1,000 km. Dr Zhou says diagnosis and treatment of schistosomiasis with praziquantel should be relative straightforward if a system is in place.
"Due to an unprecedented migration rate of populations in China as well as in other developing countries the number of such missed or ignored advanced cases could be huge.  Therefore, an improvement in the current monitoring system and aid-project management (i.e., enrolling vulnerable populations who have migrated from an endemic to nonendemic areas)  is clearly and urgently needed. This seems of great importance when the control and elimination of schistosomiasis has been put on the agenda," he concludes.
Source: PLOS Medicine