Inside Money: Why health insurers want to crack down on sick economic crimes

Health insurance fraud is a significant problem in New Zealand, adding perhaps $30 million to premiums annually, according to Southern Cross Healthcare. Photo / Thinkstock

Global economic health has steadily been on the up since the financial near-death experience in 2008, according to most standard indicators.

And some of the non-standard measures also reflect a positive prognosis for the world, including the latest economic crime statistics reported by accounting firm PwC.

The 2014 data from PwC, which has been surveying global economic crime rates since the turn of the century, shows a marked uptick in criminal activity since the 2009 low point.

In 2009 a mere 30 per cent of the thousands of global businesses surveyed reported they had been victims of an economic crime; by 2014 that figure stood at 37 per cent. PwC's reported crime rate peaked at 45 per cent in 2005, which probably coincides with height of pre-GFC global economic optimism.

The obvious conclusion to draw from the PwC data is that when times are good, crimes are good.

With just 33 per cent of the 82 Kiwi companies surveyed reporting fraudulent activity, New Zealand's economic crime rates are below the global average, according to PwC's country study.

"This ranks New Zealand 45th out of more than 95 countries that took part in the survey, and places us slightly below the global average of 37 per cent, and significantly below our neighbours Australia (57 per cent)," the PwC report says.

While the PwC study identifies the typical NZ economic crime as an inside job (70 per cent in 2014 compared to only 52 per cent reported as internal incidents in the 2011 survey), some industries also face external threats.

New Zealand's health insurers, for example, are banding together to create a "fraud register", designed primarily to stamp out supplier fraud.

Southern Cross Healthcare reckons, if global research is any guide, health insurance fraud "is a significant problem in New Zealand", adding perhaps $30 million to premiums annually.

By using shared data, the register should be able to pick up on fraudulent activity such as 'over-servicing' and strange billing patterns.

"For example, a patient can't have more than one heart bypass on the same day," Southern Cross says, "... [and] a patient should not undergo more than one hysterectomy."