TN health department caps Covid treatment costs at pvt hospitals

TN health department caps Covid treatment costs at pvt hospitals

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:07.06.2020

To prevent profiteering by private hospitals, the Tamil Nadu health department has fixed treatment costs for Covid-19 patients at Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 a day. The state wing of the Indian Medical Association has asked the state to either revise the price or take over private hospitals that are willing to offer their space instead.

A release from state health minister C Vijayabaskar said hospitals in the A3 and A4 categories – as listed on the state health insurance webpage (https:// www.cmchistn.com) – cannot charge more than Rs 5,000 a day for treatment of Covid-19 in the general ward, multispecialty hospitals in A1 and A2 category can’t charge beyond Rs 7,500. For treatment in ICU, hospitals cannot charge more than Rs 15,000.

“Legal action will be initiated against hospitals that charge more than the prescribed fee,” he said.

Earlier this week, Vijayabaskar had said the government had received complaints that hospitals were fleecing patients. Minutes after the state released the tariff norms, IMA state secretary Dr AK Ravikumar said the doctors association will make a representation for revision. “We will not be able to run the wards at that rate. Many hospital owners are telling us that they are ready to give the Covid beds to the state government. We will just work for them,” he said.

Analysis of bills by TOI showed that a Covid-19 patient who stayed for 10 days in a semi-private room of a hospital in Chennai spent Rs1,081 towards medicines and Rs2,550 for blood tests and xray. But the patient had to pay Rs 2,500 for “other packages” and Rs44,000 towards consultation, Rs8,800 towards nursing charges, Rs20,000 towards room rent. The cost towards PPE for doctors and other healthcare workers was Rs1.01 lakh out of the Rs1.80 lakh bill. “On an average we need at least nine PPEs per patient. There is an additional cost when we have to quarantine staff on Covid-19 duty,” Dr Ravikumar said.

Only Delhiites may be allowed in govt hosps

The Delhi government is likely to reserve its hospitals for the residents of Delhi till the city is battling the novel coronavirus pandemic, while the central government hospitals may continue to remain open for patients from across the country. A final decision is, however, yet to be taken. It is being done to ensure that outside patients do not overwhelm the Covid infrastructure in Delhi which has reported over 26,000 positive cases so far. The sealed Delhi borders are also likely to be opened after an announcement over reservations in the hospitals is made.

The state government has received over 7.5 lakh suggestions from the people of Delhi on the issue and a final decision is likely to be announced on Sunday. Many people have favoured reserving the Delhi government hospitals for the people of Delhi. “I liked a suggestion. But, a final decision is yet to be taken,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal stated. TNN