Cost of Covid-19 tests in Haryana capped at ₹2,400

Haryana’s health department on Friday issued an order to regulate rates for Covid-19 tests in the state. the move comes a day after an expert panel of the Centre,

Haryana’s health department on Friday issued an order to regulate rates for Covid-19 tests in the state. the move comes a day after an expert panel of the Centre, headed by NITI Ayog member VK Paul, suggested that RT-PCR testing costs be capped at Rs 2400 for Delhi-NCR.

HT Image

Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests — which is considered the gold standard in Covid-19 testing and diagnosis –– will now cost Rs 2400 in Gurugram and rest of Haryana, the order said.

Senior officials of the state government confirmed that testing prices in Haryana were cut down after the national capital went ahead with the Central government committee’s decision of capping prices at Rs 2,400.. The official order regarding the same was released on Friday by the director general health services, Haryana government.

The order states, “Taking into account the cost of kits on the basis of precedents in other states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Telangana, the state government directs that no private laboratory should charge an amount more than Rs 2400 for RT-PCR.”

Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary, health department, confirmed the move and said, “RT-PCR testing price have been capped to Rs 2,400.”

The decision was taken under the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897. The order also mentions that the new price is inclusive of GST, cost involved in pick up, packing and transportation of samples, documentation and reporting.

There are seven private laboratories in Gurugram approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct RT-PCR tests. Also, the state is providing free testing in 12 government laboratories, which are mostly in medical colleges, civil hospitals and other government institutions.

Representatives of Core Diagnostics, a lab that works closely with Haryana government, refused to comment on the latest order.

On March 17, RT-PCR testing was started in private labs and the upper limit for single test charges was capped at Rs 4500, based on the cost of imported kits and efforts involved in carrying out the test. Since testing supplies were stabilized and varied options of testing materials/kits, including indigenous ones, were more readily available, the ICMR on May 25 asked the states to negotiate and fix mutually agreeable prices for RT-PCR tests for Covid-19.

The Haryana government on May 28, fixed the cost of RT-PCR test for detecting SARS-CoV-2 virus between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,950, after negotiations with the three actively functioning private labs that are authorised to conduct the test in the state. In Gurugram, some of the samples collected by the health team were initially sent to these private labs for testing.

The Haryana Medical Services Corporation Limited (HMSCL) fixed the prices, stating Rs 2500 will be charged per sample if the health department collects the sample and uses its own transportation to deliver it to the lab.

In case, the sample is collected by the staff at Civil Hospital but it is picked up by the private labs, which includes their logistics, testing and reporting, the price will increase to Rs 3200. It will further increase to Rs 3950, if the sample collection, logistics, testing and reporting is done by the private lab all by itself. These rates have been fixed as one-third for screening and two-thirds for confirmatory test.