Huge fraud: Aasandha billed MVR 23,000 for USD 500 injection

National Social Protection Agency (NSPA)’s CEO Heena Waleed states it has been uncovered that a private company has been billing Aasandha MVR 23,000 for an eye injection imported at USD 500 in a huge fraud to obtain an illicit benefit.

The injection that is sold and billed to Aasandha at a high profit is ‘Lucentis’ which is issued to treat eye conditions.

A member of the public shared a post on social media, citing MVR 24,000 is incurred from their own pocket for Lucentis injection which is no longer covered under Aasandha.

Heena shared the post, citing this to be a prime example of leveraging Aasandha for business at a huge profit and a violation of the stipulated regulation.

In this regard, Heena underscored having taken note of the fact that Lucentis injection was being sold at a huge profit amid efforts to revise the price of medications under Aasandha. She detailed that Aasandha has been billed MVR 23,000 for the injection despite being imported for USD 500.

Thus, she cited this as a profit of MVR 14,000 even considering a USD exchange rate of MVR 18.

Heena further said a completely different company was registered to import the medication which in reality, has not imported the medication to any extent.

“But this party has sold the medication for prescription without registering for its importation. It is this party that has billed the most within [Aasandha] scheme for this medication,” she emphasized.

Heena underscored that Aasandha nor NSPA had been informed when a party was continuing to bill for an injection without registration with Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) while obtaining a high profit from it.

However, she noted that authorities have taken measures to put a stop to this and are currently providing assistance to individuals in need of the medication to receive it at a controlled price. Efforts are also being undertaken to improve these matters, she added.

Heena said private parties leveraging Aasandha for business profit has resulted in huge losses to the public. Some of the main reasons behind this longstanding issue as per Heena are the failure to probe into issues within Aasandha system and the failure to upkeep communication between the two systems.

“By the will of Almighty, we will resolve this under the guidance of the President,” she added.

Notably, the government has recently initiated efforts to reform Aasandha which they said would greatly decrease wasteful spending from the scheme.