The Rafaela Decentralized Fiscal Office has requested the case against a pharmacist and a doctor to be elevated to oral trial for defrauding PAMI with the issuance of over 600 fake prescriptions. This caused a loss exceeding one million pesos for the National Social Services Institute for Retirees and Pensioners (INSSJP). The request to elevate the case to trial was formalized by Federal Prosecutor Jorge Gustavo Onel before the Federal Judge of Rafaela, Aurelio Cuello Murúa. The accused are 72-year-old doctor Alberto José Mazzuchelli and 53-year-old pharmacist Gisela Viviana Bernini. Both are being prosecuted for the crime of defrauding the public administration for having issued more than 600 fake prescriptions between February and September 2021. This was done to simulate the provision of medications on behalf of patients who were not on the doctor's roster. It was proven that the scheme caused a calculated loss of $1,125,228 to the INSSJP. The two professionals created 636 prescriptions for 78 members of PAMI who were not patients of Dr. Mazzuchelli. These prescriptions were issued from computers located at the “Farmacia Bernini”, according to the IP addresses assigned by the Personal telephone service to the business address. Prosecutor Onel stated that for the creation of the prescriptions to be possible and viable within the National Social Work's Electronic Prescription System, the user and access key provided by Mazzuchelli were used: “Without this essential contribution from the doctor, the pharmacist could not have made the prescriptions and the subsequent dispossession of state funds in her favor”. In this regard, he specified that the owner of Farmacia Bernini, “through the irregular creation of electronic medication prescriptions, using the computer system previously provided by a regular INSSJP service provider, promoted erroneous patrimonial dispositions, notoriously harmful to the state body, causing a depletion in the social work's coffers amounting to $1,125,228, with the clear objective of obtaining an undue benefit, which she effectively received in her business”. The pharmacist will face trial as the author of the crime of defrauding the public administration, while the doctor was considered a necessary participant in the same crime, highlights the report from the Public Prosecutor's Office. Regarding the difference in the degree of participation, the prosecution indicated that the actions detected and the patrimonial disbursement (in money or supplies) are attributable to Bernini's pharmacy, but specified that this could not have been implemented without the doctor's contribution through the provision of his user and management key. The investigation into this case began after a complaint was filed by the social work's legal department with the Fiscal Unit for the Investigation of Crimes Committed within the scope of the INSSJP and its Comprehensive Medical Care Program (UFI-PAMI), led by Federal Prosecutor Javier Arzubi Calvo. From interviews with various members, it was confirmed in all cases that the investigated doctor was not their provider: one of them referred to buying medications, but without a medical prescription; four indicated that they consumed a smaller amount of medication than prescribed; while five, although they acknowledged taking medication, clarified that they had been prescribed by their primary care doctors.
