Fraud: digital healthcare in Sweden

Yesterday, Sveriges Radio (the state-run Swedish Radio) released an exposé¹ of the biggest digital-healthcare providers in Sweden. They focused on Kry, but they also investigated Doktor.se and MinDoktor.se².

I listened to their two-part podcast series yesterday. Part one³ revealed a lot of information, for example:

• Kry earn 500 Swedish crowns (50 USD) per digital doctor visit; this money is taken from the Swedish state
• The tests performed by Swedish Radio reporters averaged 2.5-visits with a doctor for symptoms that should not have required a doctor's visit
• A hard-working Kry doctor can cover 100 patient visits in a day (which amounts to 5000 USD/day or 100,000 USD/month)
• Kry doctors sign a non-disclosure agreement where they're liable to pay 10,000 USD per violation against the agreement, which mainly exists to protect Kry from the media
• Kry implemented a payment scheme, Pay Per Meeting, where doctors who handle a lot of patients per day get premiered while slower-working doctors get fewer patients (which means less pay)

Part two⁴ featured notable information, for example:

• An interview with Kry CEO Kalle Conneryd Lundgren, who said no doctors handle 100 patients in a day. He wanted to avoid answering questions about metrics, talked about morals and health being the most important thing, but couldn't answer a question on how come they're hell-bent on metrics in their sales meetings and their payment scheme
• The day after the interview, Kry sent their doctors a letter saying they were implementing a cap where doctors aren't allowed to meet more than 7-8 patients per hour. That's still a lot of patients per hour, which has zero to do with health and everything to do with generating a maximum amount of profit for the top people at Kry

Nothing is changing because of 'morals'. These companies operate to generate profit and won't stop because they realise they're 'bad'.

Elisabeth Lann, the Swedish Minister of Health, says Kry's methods are deplorable.

She's right. The Swedish state should regulate against bad companies like these. Let's include AI companies while we're at it, OK?

Min Doktor send bills for doctor appointments that have never happened⁵. That's something to make you think of how profit reigns at these companies in lieu of care. Funny, that: healthcare without care nor health.

Kry have responded⁶ to the radio series by saying they do care and get 7.4/10 in employee surveys. Great going, Kry... Vapid and insipid at the same time.