Prescription fraud is constantly growing: more than 13 million euros were detected in 2024 alone. Faced with increasingly sophisticated falsified documents, traditional solutions are reaching their limits. New technologies, reinforced checks, specialized software... Discover the methods to be put in place to sustainably secure the health system.
Prescription fraud is the practice of falsifying, diverting, or manufacturing false prescriptions in order to obtain medications illegally.
It can take various forms such as:
Today, organized networks exploit sophisticated digital tools to produce fakes that are almost undetectable to the naked eye. The problem? Fraud weakens the care chain, feeds dangerous trafficking and exposes patients to serious medical risks.
The falsification of prescriptions primarily affects medicines at high value or with high resale potential on the parallel market.
The most coveted products are painkillers Powerful Or the diabetes treatments. They are rare and have a high cost.
Recent figures attest to the extent of the problem.
In 2024, theHealth insurance Identified and stopped more than 13 million euros in fraud linked to false prescriptions And to Drug trafficking.
This phenomenon is not trivial: it takes a heavy toll on the health system and diverts resources that should be allocated to patient care. It is also a public health issue.
The drugs derived from these trafficking can be resold on the black market, consumed without medical supervision or illegally exported.
In any case, the health consequences are potentially dramatic.
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Recognizing the dangers associated with falsifying prescriptions, Health Insurance has strengthened its arsenal in the fight against fraud.
Two main devices stand out: teleservice Asafo-Pharma and the gradual generalization ofdigital prescription.
Launched in 2024, ASAFO-Pharma is a significant advance. It allows pharmacists to promptly report any suspicion of a counterfeit prescription.
The reports are then analyzed by Health Insurance, which can broadcast alerts to all pharmacies in the territory.
Since its implementation in August 2024, the system has made it possible to collect more than 7,300 suspicions, 2,000 of which were transmitted urgently to French pharmacies.
In three out of four cases, the prescriptions reported were actually confirmed as fraudulent.
This direct collaboration between professionals in the field and control bodies represents an effective response, but one that remains reactive rather than preventive.
At the same time, digital prescribing is progressing.
It aims to reduce falsifications linked to paper documents by integrating prescriptions directly into a secure dematerialized circuit.
At the end of February 2025, it was 56 million digital prescriptions that had been created. This transition to digital technology is an essential step in the modernization of the care pathway.
However, while it reduces some risks, it does not completely eliminate the possibilities of fraud. To be fully effective, this strategy must be accompanied by technological solutions that can detect fraud in real time.
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It is precisely in this context that innovative solutions such as Finovox find their place. Specialized in detection of false documents, Finovox uses advanced algorithms capable of identifying anomalies that are invisible to the untrained eye.
The software analyzes automatically your documents. It can identify typographical inconsistencies, digital retouching, suspicious duplications, or anomalies in file metadata. These checks are carried out in a few seconds, making it possible to integrate Finovox directly into the workflow of pharmacists and health institutions.
The contribution of Finovox is twofold. On the one hand, he relieves health professionals, who can't always spend time analyzing every suspicious document. On the other hand, it brings a additional guarantee of reliability by detecting falsifications that are otherwise undetectable.
Beyond financial protection, the challenge is above all humane. Preventing the delivery of drugs obtained fraudulently is preserve the access of real patients to their treatments and avoid that sensitive substances do not circulate in parallel circuits.
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