Bengaluru: Karnataka govt has directed private hospitals to display price charts for important medical procedures at their reception counters to help patients make informed choices, health minister UT Khader announced Thursday after a meeting with Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (Phana).
PHANA agreed to the proposal, Khader said, and also explained why treatment costs vary. Hospital ownership, Khader said, plays a significant role in determining prices. Khader said he decided to meet pharmaceutical companies after hospitals said they were procuring medicines at prices significantly higher than their manufacturing costs. “We will also meet insurance companies to understand why a procedure that costs Rs 1 lakh at a hospital can result in a bill of Rs 3 lakh,” he said.
“We discussed why hospitals charge different rates for the same procedures. Differences in facilities, infrastructure and other factors may account for some variation, but there should be a limit to how much hospitals can charge. “In hospitals run by doctor-owners, prices are largely under control.
Khader also made it clear that no hospital should withhold a patient’s body over unpaid bills. A clear policy will be formulated to address this issue, he added.