The complex process of providing health insurance requires numerous participants, which makes health insurance fraud very hard to detect. They occur in different forms and are committed by various participants in the health care process: patients, insurance companies, medication providers and providers of assistive devices, agents, health service providers etc. 

The American agency National Healthcare Anti Fraud Association reports that these losses represent between 3% and 10% of the health service expenditure in America. The European situation is no less alarming.

The British agency National Health Service Counter Fraud Service estimates that the EU countries lose an alarming amount of EUR 30 to 60 billion through the leaks in the health insurance system per year.

In 2003, the  European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network was established in order to fight corruption and health insurance fraud.