The Catanzaro Prosecutor’s Office once again turns the spotlight on the professional activities of doctors serving in public facilities. The investigation conducted by the deputy prosecutor Francesca Delcogliano hypothesizes the crime of fraud against ten doctors. According to the accusation, despite having exclusivity contracts with the ASP and the “Renato Dulbecco” company, they would have carried out professional activities in private clinics, then making the visits appear to other colleagues or passing them off as simple consultancy. In this way they would have obtained illicit profits, with equal damage to the health system coffers, for a total of approximately 175 thousand euros. In particular, Raffaele Giuseppe Maria Antonio Mancini, medical director of the ASP of Catanzaro, allegedly failed to inform the administration to which he belonged that he carried out his professional activity in a private structure. Three doctors working in the clinic are under investigation with him, Ercole Antonio Mercuri, Maria Francesca Ferrari and Alessandra Mastroianni, who allegedly issued tax documents in their own names, complete with invoices and receipts relating to visits actually carried out personally by Mancini, misleading the ASP as to whether the manager actually respected the exclusivity constraint. According to the accusation, he would have obtained an amount of 101,750.94 euros for the exclusivity allowance from January 2022 to December 2025. Raffaele De Chiara, medical director of Dulbecco, would have carried out extramural professional services in a company in Catanzaro, carrying out visits formally presented as consultancy, continuing to receive the exclusivity allowance not due equal to 28,788.10 euros for approximately one year from January to December 2021.
Identical accusation hypotheses for Eugenio Biamonte, also a medical director of Dulbecco, who allegedly failed to communicate to the company the performance of extra healthcare services in a private facility in Catanzaro, securing from January 2020 to December 2021 as much as 21,138, 35 euros as compensation for exclusivity. Even Riccardo Maschio, medical director of the ASP, would not have declared the work activity carried out in a private clinic outside the limit cases of strict authorization received only for technical consultancy, he would have signed a declaration in lieu of a mendacious deed, certifying the absence of causes of incompatibility with the activity carried out in the private centre, while Mercuri and Ferrari doctors working in the clinical center would have issued in their own names invoices and receipts actually carried out by Maschio, misleading the ASP and resulting in an unfair profit of 11,857,73 euros. Smaller figures are contested against doctors Liliana Chiarella, Antonietta Fava and Federica Visconti. The suspects will have twenty days to request to be heard by the prosecutor or file defense briefs to clarify the facts under investigation. Only then will the Prosecutor’s Office be able to decide whether to proceed with the request for indictment or to dismiss the case. The principle of not guilty applies to everyone.