Price caps for Covid-19 care leave Bengaluru private hospitals unhappy

Bengaluru: Private hospitals in Bengaluru have expressed reservations about the ceiling in rates fixed by the state government for Covid-19 treatment. Some hospitals as well as experts said the government could have classified hospitals, and notified rates according to their size and type.

They said the one-size-fits-all pricing would not be sustainable for large hospitals and might eventually create a black-market-like situation, where patients who would be ready to pay more would get the treatment while others might not.

“It is unfair to have a uniform pricing level for all hospitals — from a small medical facility on the outskirts to a modern, well-equipped hospital in the city. Treatment expenses vary depending on the infrastructure availability,” Deepak Balani, the chief of medical services at Sakra World Hospital, told ET. The state government in its notification has asked private hospitals to make arrangements to treat Covid-19 patients. It has directed them to reserve 50% of the beds to treat patients referred by public health authorities. Hospitals can admit private patients to the remaining beds.

The state has also announced two categories of pricing — one for patients referred by public health authorities, and the other for those who take direct admission. Although the government has indicated the upper limits, all hospitals are likely to charge the maximum. Narayana Health executive director Viren Prasad Shetty said cross-subsidisation would help hospitals break even. “We have had Covid patients whose daily treatment cost was 1,000, and we have also had critically ill patients with treatment costs of 40,000 per day. A common pricing for all will make a person with minimum treatment to pay more and vice versa,” Shetty said.

Hospitals are also expecting the government to clear bills of patients covered under the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha scheme. “It will help us avoid liquidity crunch when the treatment is offered at a subsidised cost,” said Harish Pillai, the chief executive at Aster DM Healthcare, India.

Manipal Hospitals chairman H Sudarshan Ballal said hospitals should work around the cost and also with the government to see “what best can be done”. “In a crisis situation like this, there has to be a dialogue and some common point to start with,” Ballal said. With a rise in the number of Covid cases in Bengaluru, the beds that private hospitals had previously earmarked to treat Covid-19 patients are nearly full. The administrator of a super-speciality hospital, who did not wish to be named, said patients and their families were so anxious to get treatment that they were ready to pay any amount.