Two women who worked at a Canberra medical clinic have admitted using a patient records system to defraud Medicare.
They were working in management and receptionist roles when they committed the crimes.
Vanessa West, 32, was practice manager at Calvary Clinic in Bruce when she created dozens of fraudulent payment receipts purporting to cover medical treatment for herself and her children.
Between 2011 and 2013 she attended Medicare officers and used the fake receipts to claim $68,868 in rebates that she was not entitled to receive.
Today she pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to a charge of making a false statement, which encompassed 57 offences.
The court heard West understood that what she did was wrong and she was not entitled to any of the money.
In a separate court appearance, Belinda Leary, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of making a false statement.
The court heard that while she was a receptionist at Calvary Clinic she also used the patients records system in a similar manner to create false payment receipts.
In 2013, she created six fraudulent tax invoices claiming to cover medical treatment for herself and falsely claimed Medicare rebates of $1,463.40.
Facts before the court stated Leary regretted what she had done and wanted to pay the money back.
Both West and Leary accessed the patient management record system and created accounts in their names, which allowed them to print fake tax invoices for medical treatment.
They then deleted the record they had created.
Charges were laid after investigators from the Department of Human Services went to the clinic in September 2013 to investigate the women’s activities.
Both women spent the money they obtained from Medicare on gambling.
They will be sentenced at a later date.