Health insurance companies are seeing more fraud attempts
Organized crime discovers the healthcare system
September 25, 2026 – 5:30 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
Health insurance companies lose millions of euros every year due to fraudsters. In addition to individual perpetrators, professional perpetrators are increasingly becoming involved.
Around 2,300 new suspected cases of billing fraud were recorded at the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit in 2024 and 2025. That was 30 percent more than in the previous reporting period, according to the cash register on Friday Hamburg announced. In total, it tracked almost 4,900 existing and new cases, which was 20 percent more than in previous years. The resulting damage was therefore 15.6 million euros.
The medicines and bandages service area was most affected, at five and a half million euros. The main reason was fake prescriptions for high-priced cancer drugs and weight-loss injections. From April 2024 to November 2025 alone DAK Around a thousand counterfeit prescriptions were registered with a loss of around 1.1 million euros.
Care is the focus
Almost every second case of fraud was attributable to the care service area. The damage amounted to 3.6 million euros. Of this, more than two million euros went to home nursing, around one million to out-of-hospital intensive care and more than 600,000 euros to long-term care insurance.
The travel expenses service area was the third most affected by billing fraud. The amount of damage here is 1.8 million euros, it said. The damage in the area of medical aids amounted to 1.6 million euros and in the area of medicinal products it amounted to 800,000 euros. Around 23 percent of the completed suspected cases were proven.
The total damage in the previous reporting period was even higher at 17.6 million euros. A few major cases with millions in damages contributed to the overall high level of damage, it was said. DAK was able to secure around 5.9 million euros in the last reporting period.
