Punish this thievery

Like taking candy from a baby may be an overused expression, but it’s hard to think of a better way to describe how easy it is for unscrupulous pharmacists to steal millions from the taxpayer-funded Ontario Drug Benefit Program.

The province’s auditor general, in fact, recently identified $4 million in flagrantly false claims made to the plan by pharmacists over two years simply by flagging suspicious paperwork. That included drugs billed for dead people and birth control pills supposedly prescribed to men.

So it’s not that this crime is a tough nut to crack. All that’s required is a modicum of oversight combined with punishments that might actually act as a deterrent.

But, as a Star/Global news investigation shows, neither is in place right now, although the problem has been highlighted for decades.

That must change before one more pharmacist robs a plan meant to provide medicines to children, seniors and those on social assistance.

Step one is for the province to hire more inspectors to catch pharmacists who overbill — as the auditor general recommended on no less than four occasions between1996 and 2017.

Step two is for the Ontario College of Pharmacists to get serious with the penalties it metes out.

Consider the case of a pharmacist in Mississauga who admitted to overbilling nearly $1million. Thankfully, the Ontario drug plan got its money back. But all the college did was issue a $5,000 fine and a 16-month licence suspension.

That wrist-slap is par for the course. As is the fact that pharmacists are generally not criminally charged because the Ministry of Health rarely bothers to refer cases to police. That, too, should change.

The province and college must do more to catch and deter unscrupulous pharmacists. Those who rob the health care system ought not to get off so lightly.