Covid-19 treatments at private hospitals to get cheaper

A senior government official said the cap of up to 60% of the total beds in private hospitals means that hospitals such as Moolchand, Fortis, etc., which have been declared as 100% Covid-19 hospitals will also have to offer the new subsidised rates to 60% of the beds.

The Delhi government said on Saturday that beds for Covid-19 patients at private hospitals will be subsidised, with treatment charges being reduced by 60-67%. The new rates, to be charged by all private hospitals with immediate effect, will be applicable to all Covid-19 beds at a private hospitals for up to 60% of its total capacity.

Medical staff interact with visitors outside the Covid-19 ward at Lok Nayak hospital on Saturday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

“100% COVID beds shall be subsidised up to an upper limit of 60% of total hospital capacity,” Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, cleared the move.

The rates now have been capped between Rs 8,000 (non-NABH accredited hospitals) and Rs 10,000 (NABH accredited hospitals including entry level facilities) a day for an isolation bed, Rs 13,000-15,000 a day for a bed at an intensive care unit (ICU), and Rs 15,000-18,000 a day for an ICU bed with ventilator. Until this order was issued on Saturday evening, the fee for an isolation bed in Delhi was Rs 24,000-25,000 a day. For an ICU bed, it was Rs 34,000-43,000 a day, while an ICU bed with ventilator was Rs 44,000-54,000 a day.

The decision was taken at a meeting of DDMA on Saturday. Like the decision on the five-day mandatory institutional quarantine for all Covid-19 positive cases, this, too, was a point of disagreement between the L-G and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during the DDMA meetings held on Saturday. Kejriwal is the vice-chairperson of the DDMA.

The Covid treatment rates were recommended by an expert panel headed by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul.

“The rates approved by the committee would be applicable to all Covid beds up to the upper limit of 60% of the total bed capacity of the private hospitals. The L-G also directed that the hospitals would follow the National Guidelines on admission of COVID-19 patients… The L-G directed that best quality of clinical care should be provided to all patients. He advised that the health department should ensure adherence to quality of care by the hospitals/Laboratories as per standards. An efficient system for feedback and grievance redressal should be put in place by the Health Department to strictly ensure implementation of the recommendations of the High Level Expert Committee,” the LG office said in a statement.

Representatives of private hospitals said they have been under stress to maintain staff and infrastructure in view of the increased demand for beds due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While we fully support the need for transparency of pricing, hospitals are incurring considerably increased expenses on both non-Covid and Covid patient care. It is important to ensure there is no compromise in the quality of care or the safety of health care professionals,” Fortis hospital said in a statement.

Another representative of a private hospital, asking not to be named, said: “The hospital now has to invest for at least double the staff. Earlier, if there were 200 nursing staff needed, now we need at least double that because they have to undergo quarantine after duty. Plus, when you ask someone to risk their lives they want a higher salary. How are the hospitals supposed to remain viable if the government imposes such price caps?”

An order issued by the health department later on Saturday evening read that the rates recommended for private hospitals beds would be inclusive of all charges. The package rates will include bed, food, and other amenities, monitoring, nursing care, doctor’s visits/consultations, investigations including imaging, treatment as per national protocol for Covid care and standard care for co-morbidities, oxygen, blood transfusion and so on.

“Since many of the Covid patients have conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, etc, the charges for medical care of such co-morbidities will be a part of the package. This would include short-term haemodialysis as a part of acute care during the current admissions,” the order stated.

The rates, the order stated, would not cover experimental therapies (ramdesivir, for example). “The charges will not include the cost of Covid-19 diagnostic test(s) as well as IL-6 levels. The proposed charges wil apply to paediatric patients as well. For pregnant women, cost for delivery (normal/c-section) and care of new born would be charged by the hospital extra as per prevailing PMJAY rates of relevant packages,” the order further read.

The Delhi government in a statement said the Central government Committee had recommended the rates, but it was limited to 60% of the beds reserved for Covid patients in private hospitals.

“As the Delhi government has asked private hospitals to reserve 40% of their beds for Covid patients as of now, this capping would have meant that only 24% of beds would have been price capped. CM Kejriwal put forward his views on this and strongly presented a case to price cap all the beds reserved for Covid in private hospitals. After deliberations, it was unanimously decided to price cap all the reserved beds for Covid patients which will benefit the common man and leave no scope for arbitrary overcharging,” the government said.