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Hospital refunds ₹3.36 lakh to Covid patient after civic body sends notice
A private hospital in Dombivli, which had charged Covid patients exorbitant bills for treatment, faced action by the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC)
A private hospital in Dombivli, which had charged Covid patients exorbitant bills for treatment, faced action by the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) and had to return ₹3.36 lakh to the patient after the civic body’s intervention.
Last month, KDMC formed a committee to look into complaints of overcharging or denying admission to patients. This committee found that the private hospital had charged the patient a bill of ₹4.81 lakhs. The patient’s family complained to the civic body on July 13, following which the civic committee intervened.
“There was a complaint from a family about overcharging. We served a show-cause notice to the hospital asking the hospital to return the excessive amount,” said Vinay Kulkarni, officer in-charge of the committee.
KDMC on Thursday said it has deployed its staffs at all the 24 hospitals that has tied up with the civic body to treat Covid patients. The staff will check bills of patients during discharge and in case of over-charging will report to the committee. The appointed staff will update the committee on weekly basis.
“So far 24 hospitals have agreed to treat Covid patients and 80% of the beds in these hospitals will be under our control. In order to ensure there is no overcharging or denial of beds, we have appointed our staffs at these hospitals. If we receive any complaint, action will be taken,” said Madhavi Pophale, public relations officer, KDMC.
The committee had received complaints against four hospitals followed, following which show-cause notices were served. A dedicated helpline number 0251-2211866 is also functional for such complaints from patients.
Sreeniwas Ghanekar, founder of Alert Citizens Forum, Kalyan, said, “We have been asking the civic body to act against hospitals which are overcharging or denying beds to patients. This move by KDMC is a remarkable one and it will help the patients in many ways. People can still approach us if they have complaints, we will follow it up.”
