A urologist was fined after the health insurers’ organisation (HIO) found various irregularities in his expenses claims for the month of August, including that he had claimed expenses for scanning male genitalia in female patients, according to reports.

The reports, which appeared in newspaper Phileleftheros, claimed that various irregularities had appeared in the doctor’s expenses claims, with others including claims that he was “registering expenses claims for repeated and unjustified ultrasounds”.

An investigation into the claims found that “activities related to ultrasounds were repeatedly carried out for the same beneficiaries and the same incident within a short period of time without justification and without the repetition being documented.”

The man was issued a €1,000 fine, though he reportedly claimed the matter of scanning male genitalia in female patients had come about as he had accidentally entered the wrong codes into Gesy’s software.

In addition, a further 16 doctors, all of whom are orthopaedic specialists, were issued fines after investigations found that they were “submitting out-of-hospital claims for expenses for activities in violation of the [HIO’s] terms and restrictions.”

This had been done by doctors claiming expenses for having registered that they had visited a patient without having also carried out any of the required actions that they would ordinarily have to carry out during a visit.

In short, the code they entered into Gesy’s expenses system paid out a greater amount of compensation than that to which they were entitled for the tasks they had carried out during the visits.

All 16 doctors were issued fines ranging between €300 and €500, with a total of €500 worth of fines being issued to the 16.

HIO director Constantinos Panayides said his organisation’s audits of expenses claims made by doctors are “continuous” and that they “often find suspicious … entries into the system.”

“All these cases which concern the behaviour of service providers within the system are investigated. In cases where investigations reveal data which worries us, and depending on the nature of each case, fines are imposed if it is established that mistakes were made,” he said.

However, he added, “if a matter arises which needs further investigation … there are suspensions or terminations of contracts, or, in some cases, reports filed to the police.”

Such a case was found in July when a doctor was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for fraud, while his wife was also handed a two-year sentence.

The doctor, a neurosurgeon, and his wife were found guilty of telling patients to buy a cerebral shunt, a valve to drain fluid from the brain, from the woman’s company, instead of telling them it was free under Gesy.

The woman’s company were selling cerebral shunts for €1,500.