Maharashtra cuts test rates at private labs

Maharashtra cuts test rates at private labs

Home collection of samples to cost only ₹2,800 now

14/06/2020 

There has been a growing demand in the State to reduce the testing charges.

The Maharashtra government on Saturday cut the cost of the COVID-19 test at private laboratories from ₹4,500 to ₹2,800 for home collection of samples. The rate is ₹2,200 if samples are collected from hospitals.

Health Minister Rajesh Tope said there was a growing demand for slashing the cost. “We had set up a committee to look into the pricing. It studied all the aspects and has decided on the rates,” he said in a video released by him. “There is a plenty of testing kits available now, and the price of kits has also come down. Therefore, laboratories should not look at profiteering,” he said.

Maharashtra has so far carried out over 6.4 lakh tests, including 2.5 lakh in Mumbai. While the State’s daily average has gone up to 15,000 in the past three days, Mumbai’s daily average is 4,500. Maharashtra’s case positivity rate is 16.18% and Mumbai’s 22%.

“With such a high positivity rate, especially in Mumbai, the incidence of cases will be much higher. Therefore, the testing has to go up,” said Soumitra Ghosh, a professor of the School of Health System Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He said one of the major flaws in dealing with the outbreak was lack of aggressive contact-tracing. “The staff on duty surely is tired. But the government has to strategise, bring in new hands to do the job,” he said.

The committee that worked on the test cost has said government laboratories are not utilising 100% of their capacity. It said they should work 24/7 in multiple shifts, and a nodal officer should distribute sample loads. To reduce the cost of tests at private laboratories, the government should consider waiver of or a reduction in the GST and regulate the rates of consumables such as viral transport medium, personal protective equipment, extraction kits and RT-PCR kits.