7 months’ jail for ‘severely dishonest’ doctor who made 116 false Chas claims totalling S$7,626

SINGAPORE — A doctor submitted 116 false claims totalling S$7,627 under a medical assistance scheme over a two-year period.
Wong Choo Wai, who ran clinics in Bedok and Jurong, submitted these claims under the Community Health Assistance Scheme (Chas).
The scheme is run by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to enable lower-income households to receive subsidies for medical and dental care at participating general practitioner clinics and dental clinics.
Wong was sentenced to seven months’ jail on Friday (Aug 30) after pleading guilty to two charges of cheating to obtain payment and one charge of falsifying accounts. 
Three other charges of falsifying accounts and two charges of cheating to obtain property were also taken into consideration for sentencing. 
Wong owned two clinics, the Bedok Day & Night Clinic and Jurong Day & Night Clinic. He is also the resident doctor of the clinic in Bedok.
Both clinics have been part of the Chas scheme since 2012.
Under Chas, Wong’s clinics were to provide the subsidy to the patients upfront during the visit and later claim the subsidy on a reimbursement basis from MOH.  The subsidies would be disbursed through the polyclinics.
The clinics must submit their claims through the eChas online portal within one month of the date of the patient’s visit. 
The clinics are required to submit the clinical and financial details of the claim. These include the date of visit, patients’ personal data, the type of conditions treated and the cost-breakdown of the claim.  
If a claim is attributed to “investigation”, it means that the patient underwent a medical investigation procedure such as blood tests, which would be supported by reports issued by third-party medical laboratories that conducted the testing.
Wong was the only person in the Jurong and Bedok clinics to submit all the Chas claims on behalf of the clinics in 2015 and 2016, when the offences occurred.
Sometime in February 2017, the Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) conducted audits of the Chas claims submitted by Wong who did it on behalf of the Jurong and Bedok clinics. 
The audit findings caused MOHH to believe that he had submitted fraudulent Chas claims. 
The matter was raised with MOH. On March 3, 2017, an officer from the ministry made a report to the police. 
The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) commenced investigations into the matter. 
Investigations revealed that during the period of offence, Wong had submitted to MOH via the eChas portal a total of 116 false claims relating to 12 patients of the Bedok clinic, involving a total amount of S$7,627.
Court documents stated that at the time when Wong submitted each of the claims, the claims were false in at least one of the following ways: 
For patients who did not visit the clinic on the date, Wong submitted Chas claims to MOH for purported visits made to the clinic even though:

For the claims that mentioned patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension and asthma, these patients never had these conditions or never sought treatment from him. 
He also submitted Chas claims to MOH, claiming that medical investigations tied to chronic conditions had been performed for patients. 
These patients never had such conditions and either did not undergo a medical investigation on the stated date or underwent a medical investigation only for general health screening purposes. 
Between January and December 2015, Wong submitted no fewer than 40 false Chas claims and MOH disbursed S$1,755 to the Bedok clinic. 
Between January and December 2016, he submitted no fewer than 76 false Chas claims, and MOH disbursed a sum of S$5,872 to the Bedok clinic.
To conceal some of the false Chas claims that he had submitted, he made 21 false entries into the clinical records of his patients, claiming that these patients had consulted him for medical illnesses when they did not. 
Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) Jean Ting and Louis Ngia sought a sentence of seven to nine months’ jail for Wong. 
DPP Ngia said that Wong committed a “serious fraud” and his actions were an “abuse of trust”.
In their sentencing submissions, the prosecution said that the doctor’s conduct was “severely dishonest and cynical”. 
“The accused was a medical professional and the owner of two clinics. Yet, he chose to abuse the trust that the MOH and his patients reposed in him.”
Wong appeared in person in court and was represented by Mr Andre Darius Jumabhoy of the eponymous law firm.
Mr Jumabhoy sought a jail term of four to five months for his client. He said that Wong is a “hands-on” medical practitioner dedicated to serving his community and was one of the frontline doctors during the Covid-19 pandemic. 
The lawyer added that Wong had made prompt and full restitution, and these convictions are a “penalty for all of us, as we will lose a competent and dedicated doctor”. 
In sentencing, Principal District Judge Thian Yee Sze said “general deterrence” was important to ensure that “others would not be tempted to do similar acts”.
She said that despite Wong’s good character and contribution to society, he had taken money from a public scheme intended to benefit people. 
He will start serving his sentence on Sept 2.
For cheating to obtain property, Wong could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined. 
For falsifying accounts, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined, or both.