Hospitals must display Available Stents and Prices outside Cathlab: NPPA

Patients are often deprived the opportunity of understanding the difference between different types/ qualities of Stents, and as a result their choice is governed almost entirely by the cardiologist‟s recommendations. It is necessary to educate patients about the treatment, including various options along with therapeutic value and cost implication. Every Hospital must display outside the Cath Lab the Stents available with the Hospitals along with their MRP.

In most cases, the patient is given negligible time to decide on the choice of Stent, as the physician expects instant decision at the time of angiography procedure itself. Under such circumstances, the decision-maker is left with no alternative but to accept whatever is recommended by the doctor. It is desirable to adequately prepare the patient and give him time to decide unless it is an emergency case.

...... Medical Council of India (MCI) should also come out with standard procedural guidelines, specific to each medical device including cardiac stents that puts a check on the entire proceedings from the initial stage of admission till patient is discharge after implantation of medical device.

The margin for distributor/importer/supplier and hospitals should be regulated in order to keep the price of DES and BMS at reasonable level.

• In the case of Abbott, the difference between landed cost (LC) and price to distributor (PTD) ranges between 68% to 140% across different brands; that between PTD and MRP ranges between 72% to 400%; and finally between LC and MRP ranges between 294% to 740%. Abbott makes institutional supply to CGHS with a margin of 100% to 200% only. This indicates the quantum of margin in the distribution channel, which is totally detrimental to consumer interest.


• In the case of Medtronics, the margin between LC and PTD ranges between 82% to 232%across different brands; that between PTD and MRP ranges between 170% to 325%; and finally that between LC and MRP ranges between 498% to 854%.


• Similarly, in the case of Boston Scientific, the margin between 43% to 105% across different brands; that between PTD and MRP ranges between 175% to 809%; and finally that between LC and MRP ranges between 464% to 1200%.