A survey conducted in Maharashtra has found that more than 75 per cent of COVID-19 patients were charged by private hospitals. Dr Abhay Shukla of Jan Arogya Abhiyan, a group of health workers working in the health sector, said that about half of these patients died during treatment.
We surveyed the cases of 2,579 patients, spoke to their relatives and audited hospital bills. Seventy-five per cent of them were admitted in private hospitals,” he said. “We found that 75 per cent were overcharged. On an average, the amount which was charged more was between Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh,” said Dr. Shukla.
Most of these patients were hospitalized during the second wave of the pandemic. Dr Shukla claimed that at least 220 of these patients were women, who spent Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh more than the actual bill, while in 212 cases the patients or their relatives paid more than Rs 2 lakh.
Although the Maharashtra government had announced that rates for treatment of COVID-19 in private hospitals would be regulated, official instructions were not heeded, he said. He said many of these patients or their families faced financial crunch, forcing them to sell jewellery, borrow from relatives or even take loans from moneylenders to settle bills.
According to the survey, at least 1,460 (56 per cent) patients or their relatives faced the condition. Seema Bhagwat, who lost her husband to mucormycosis, a fungal infection that some COVID-19 patients contracted, said he was in the hospital for 38 days and presented him with a bill of Rs 16 lakh had gone.
Still, I paid three EMIs to the bank. The bank had insurance cover for the loan, but because I contacted them late, they are rejecting my claim. How can they expect me to submit the death certificate the day after my husband’s death?” she asked. I’m not begging for help. But the hospital bill needs to be audited and if I charge more taken, the difference should be returned to me, she said.
Campaign convener Shakuntala Bhalerao said there is a lack of a law to regulate hospitals. He said a draft of the Clinical Establishment Bill, which seeks to create a regulatory mechanism, is gathering dust.
We recently fought two cases in Pune and the hospitals returned Rs 83,000 and Rs 90,000. He also admitted that he had overcharged. But we cannot fight every such case. There should be some state machinery to protect the patients,’ Bhalerao said.
Senior activist Mukund Dixit said that a police complaint had to be filed in Nashik as the hospital had refused to hand over the body of a patient on the outstanding bill. “The body was handed over after the intervention of the police and some activists, but no action was taken to the hospital,” he said.
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