Standardising rates will be catastrophic, affect healthcare quality! Private Hospitals express concern over SC intervention, AHPI to move Court

New Delhi: Concerned with the Supreme Court's recent directions to the Union Health Ministry to specify a range of rates for availing services at private hospitals and clinical establishments, the private hospitals have said that the move will be "catastrophic" for the industry and will also affect the quality of healthcare.

Taking up the issue and the concerns of the healthcare industry, the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI), which represents medium and small hospitals, has decided to approach the Supreme Court.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the Union Government for its failure to fix a range of rates of services at private healthcare facilities.

Even though Rule 9 of the Clinical Establishment (Central Government) Rules, 2012 mandates that the Government shall determine the rate of fee chargeable from the patients at private hospitals and clinical establishments, it has not been enforced till now.

As per the latest media report by Economic Times, expressing apprehensions over the Apex Court's intervention in the matter, an executive of a private hospital told the Daily, "This whole business of standardisation is immensely difficult in healthcare simply because of complications in it. The cost structure is different in each hospital as it depends on various factors like the experience of the doctors, facilities in the OT, the kind of infection control policy which is adopted by the hospital, patient safety measures, IT services, etc. Price cannot be standardised for a big hospital and a small clinic."

The Daily adds that the Apex Court raised its concern regarding the huge disparity in the cost of treatment between the government and the private healthcare facilities and highlighted the stark contrast in prices. The Apex Court also pointed out that the citizens have a fundamental right to healthcare, and the government cannot evade its responsibility to ensure this right.

However, highlighting that the cost of treatment depends on several other factors, another executive told the Daily, "It is unbelievable. The cost depends on so many other factors, even geographies. The input cost is higher in Delhi than in UP. Since the minimum wages are lower in UP, the hospital may choose to pass it on to the patients. But the same cannot be applied in a place like Delhi. If it is standardised, the quality will suffer."

Meanwhile, the Director General of AHPI, Girdhar Gyani informed Economic Times that they will approach the Court with their apprehensions. He also wrote to the Health Ministry with a recommendation to work out the costing of various procedures based on established scientific principles and fix rates in the 'range' to address the categorisation of establishments.

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