Private hospitals must follow price capping guidelines: Health Minister

The Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Tuesday asked the private hospitals to follow the price capping guidelines that were fixed during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, the State government issued orders directing private hospitals to charge Rs 4,000 per day for isolation facilities from mild Covid-19 positive patients, Rs 7,500 per day from positive patients who need Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities but not ventilator support, and Rs 9,000 per day from critical Covid-19 positive patients who need both ICU and ventilator support.

“To reduce the burden on private hospitals, we did not put a price cap on medicines and many other healthcare services and had left it to them. However, for certain services the private hospitals must stick to the price that was set by the State government,” Rajender said while interacting with the media on Tuesday.

In the last few days, the health authorities had received several complaints that private hospitals were insisting that



patients should procure Remdesivir and oxygen on their own. Many private hospitals were also not willing to treat patients despite insurance cover and some were insisting that patients must deposit a huge lump sum amount to start the treatment.

“There are other hospitals which are demanding daily clearance of medical bills. The health department is tracking these complaints and action will be taken at an appropriate time,” Rajender said.

On the issue of pricing of Covid vaccine, the Health Minister said that it was unfair on part of the Centre to expect States to procure vaccines at differential pricing.

“The Centre has clearly forgotten its responsibility. It’s unfair to make State governments responsible to hold negotiations with pharma companies for procurement of Covid vaccines and end up paying a lot for each vaccine dose. It is the responsibility of the Centre to negotiate and procure vaccines for States,” he said.