The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Thursday indicted a woman and seven of her family members for allegedly defrauding the National Health Insurance (NHI) system by pretending to have mental illnesses.
The amount of money the family is suspected to have defrauded insurance companies is the highest in the system’s history, the prosecutors’ office said, adding that it has suggested the court mete out severe punishment to deter similar behavior.
Prosecutor Huang Pei-yu (黃珮瑜) said she first learned of Chang Yu-chen (張玉真) and her family while attending an insurance seminar in 2018 and thereafter launched an investigation into the matter.
From 2008 to last year, the Chang family allegedly stayed at 11 hospitals and defrauded eight insurance companies by claiming they had symptoms including loss of sleep, hallucinatory hearing, and thoughts of suicide or murder, Huang said.
The claims misled doctors into believing that the family required immediate hospitalization, she said.
However, while staying at a hospital, the family allegedly left to eat, drink, sing at karaoke clubs or go on trips, Huang said, adding that the family members allegedly filed for insurance payouts after they were approved to leave the hospital.
The family allegedly requested NT$5,000 to NT$10,000 (US$165.29 to US$330.58) per day of hospitalization from insurance companies, totaling NT$55.7 million over 11 years, and successfully obtained NT$9.38 million from the NHI to cover “medical expenses,” Huang said.
Chang’s daughter allegedly accounted for NT$12 million in insurance claim payouts, and Chang reportedly demanded NT$50,000 from her daughter per month, Huang added.
Prosecutors said the two allegedly had a falling out over how to split the money, with Chang’s daughter telling Chang over the Line messaging app: “I’m not your Golden Goose. I’ll give you what you are due and no more.”
Chang’s brother-in-law said Chang had faked her insurance claims, and he later allegedly copied her methods to falsify claims, Huang said.
Investigators said they discovered messages on the brother-in-law’s cellphone stating that Chang had been removed from a hospital because she was wearing a lot of jewelry, most of which was paid for through insurance payouts.
Chang told prosecutors that she had resorted to falsifying insurance claims at the suggestion of her insurance agent, surnamed Lin (林), as she was millions of dollars in debt, Huang said.
Lin denied the accusation, prosecutors said, adding that they concluded there was insufficient evidence to show that Lin was involved in the alleged scheme.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS