Haryana CM constitutes committee to cap Covid-19 treatment cost in private hospitals

In Gurugram, cases have been reported where people are paying more than ₹80,000 per day for the ICU facility.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was in the city on Monday, constituted a committee to put forward recommendations regarding a price cap on the escalating on the treatment costs of Covid-19 patients in private hospitals of the city.

A committee has been constituted to put forward recommendations regarding a price cap on the escalating on the treatment costs of Covid-19 patients in private hospitals of Gurugram (Sant Arora/Hindustan Times)

With Gurugram being largely dependent upon the private healthcare sector to tackle Covid-19 crisis, cases have been reported where people are paying more than ₹80,000 per day for the ICU facility.

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“The chief minister has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the divisional commissioner to give recommendations on the treatment cost of Covid-19. These recommendations have to be submitted within a week,” said VS Kundu, CEO, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), who is also the monitoring in-charge for Covid-19 in the district.

Another senior official present at the review meeting held on Monday evening, said, “Currently, private hospitals are charging ₹80,000 per day for ICU facility. The proposal is to reduce the charges to ₹23,000 per day. However, some private hospitals have raised objections to this proposal. Therefore, a committee has been constituted comprising the divisional commissioner, MCG commissioner and chief medical officer(CMO)to submit the final report.”

As per the rates defined under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, per day cost of an isolation bed is ₹2,000 and ₹5,000 for those hospitalised in the intensive care unit, having ventilators and other facilities.

On May 22, the state health department issued another order for patients who do not fit in the mentioned categories. In such a situation, Covid-19 hospitals will have to charge as per their existing rates and state government would reimburse the expenditure as per the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The balance amount would be paid by the patient.

Out of the final medical bill, the details regarding the portion to be covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be submitted to the civil surgeon. The bills submitted by the private hospitals will be reimbursed to the private hospitals, only after verification by the committee chaired by the civil surgeon, or the chief medical officer and the district nodal officer

During the review meeting, a proposal was also placed before the CM to impose lockdown in order to break the chain of transmission as the number of cases are increasing, confirmed the senior officials present in the meeting. “A decision regarding the reimposition of a lockdown is yet to be taken,” said the senior official privy to the matter.