It did not follow treatment protocols of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), hence it was decided to strip the hospital of its status as a COVID-19 treatment facility, he said.
This came after the TMC had organized an audit team for monitoring the private hospitals and their billing process to ensure that no facilities are overcharging. HT reports that after examining many of the private hospitals the team found 196 excess bills all over the city where the patient has been wrongly charged and notices have been submitted to 15 private COVID facilities accordingly.
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Sandeep Malvi, the deputy municipal commissioner, had informed HT, "We had received complaints from several patients that this hospital overcharged them. Accordingly, our audit committee set up to look into the bills generated by all COVID Hospitals in the city checked the bills imposed by the hospital. A total of 797 patients were treated at this hospital until July 12. Of the 57 bills submitted by the hospital for the audit, 56 were found to be exorbitant. An excess of ₹6,08,900 was charged in these 56 bills."
The Horizon Prime hospital received a notice on July 20th and was instructed to submit clarification within two days. The hospital was given a period of 30 days to appeal against the directives before the Thane civic commissioner.
Now, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Sunday wrote to the CM criticizing the decision of TMC and urged the government to hold a meeting to discuss matters related to private facilities.
Mirror reports that IMA has criticized this "harsh" decision by the TMC. Calling it an illogical step, IMA stated that this kind of decision will only discourage the medical fraternity along with causing a shortage of beds especially at a time like this when Government and private hospitals are working day and night to provide beds to the increasing number of COVID patient. IMA suggested that TMC can penalize, the accused hospital for overcharging, and they can also recover the amount which the hospital allegedly charged excessively from the COVID patients.
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