Private hospitals to hike treatment package rates by 5-10 percent: Report

With this, medical treatments may get more expensive next year as prominent private hospital chains including Apollo and Fortis are likely to revise package rates by the end of 2021-22.

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A spokesperson from Fortis Healthcare told ET, "Though we are a large multispeciality hospital chain with significant overheads, we continue to treat patients at the same rates since 2019 despite non-Covid revenues being affected by the Covid pandemic, rising manpower costs, and other operating costs", adding, "We are evaluating the situation and will decide about package tariff correction at an appropriate time."

Stating that the Apollo Hospital is considering the option of increasing prices, Krishnan Akhileswaran, group chief financial officer of Apollo Hospitals stated, "The cost of sanitation, consumables, human resources and general inflation are eating into our margins, so at some point we have to pass on the cost."

Krishnan added that the general norm is raising the average annual by 5 percent, but said that it might be a little higher this time. He said that the costs have increased in high single digit.

The officials mentioned that Apollo and Fortis are 5-6% away from full business recovery of the pre-pandemic levels yet. An official associated with another listed hospital chain told ET that they are also thinking of revising their package rates.

According to Alok Roy, chairman of Kolkata-based Medica Superspecialty Hospital who is also the chair of FICCI Health Services Committee , increasing package rate is an 'inevitable' option, whereas "the quantum of rise depends on hospital to hospital."

He added, "We haven't reached the pre-pandemic levels in terms of recovery, even as costs shot up."

The private hospitals earn their revenues through three sources, which are cash-paying patients, bills settled by insurance companies, and institutional patients or those from government schemes like Central Government Health Scheme. According to executives, there might be a raise in the price to cash-paying patients, reports ET.

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