E-Paper
Inquiry against Panchkula hospital for overcharging Covid-19 patients
Haryana health minister Anil Vij sets up three-member committee to probe into complaints against Paras Hospital
Haryana health minister Anil Vij on Friday ordered an inquiry against Paras Hospital, Panchkula, for overcharging Covid-19 patients.
Vij formed a three-member committee to probe the complaints forwarded to him by Speaker and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta.
Also read: PM Modi warns against ‘black fungus’, says must focus on precaution, preparation
The committee, comprising state medical education and research director Dr Shaleen, additional director general of health services Dr VK Bansal and a state finance department official, will submit its report in a week.
Gupta had written to the state government, requesting it to carry out an audit of bills issued to Covid patients at private hospitals. He had even visited Paras Hospital after getting complaints of overcharging.
Speaker cited three cases in his letter to Vij
In his letter to Vij, Gupta mentioned three cases of overcharging.
A patient, Jog Dhyan, was handed over a bill of ₹7.59 lakh by Paras Hospital on May 13 for his treatment for Covid-19 between May 2 and 13. The charges were later reduced to ₹2.9 lakh after the district administration intervened and a district-level committee was set up to look into the allegations.
The family of another patient who succumbed to Covid on April 9 was handed a bill of ₹9.77 lakh for his treatment since March 24 at Paras Hospital.
Dharam Pal Singhal, who had been admitted to the same hospital on April 17 and was discharged on May 3, was handed a bill of ₹4.97 lakh for various procedures and lab tests.
Haryana had in June last year issued an order capping the daily package rates for Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals between ₹8,000 and ₹18,000.
Hospital claimed bills were provisional
The hospital authorities had told the district-level inquiry committee that the summary of tests and the charges for those tests were for the record of the hospital only. The hospital had maintained that the charges were provisional but the final billing would be done strictly as per the government’s instructions. The response of the hospital was part of the minutes of the meeting of the committee.
Paras Hospital marketing head Yashwant Kumar said that the authorities would be able to comment only after going through the order of the committee constituted at the state level.
