Pune: 20 Private Hospitals refund Rs 1 Crore on account of overcharging

Pune: Private hospitals under the radar of the Pune Municipal Corporation after many patients complained of overcharging against the facilities, have now collectively refunded an amount of Rs 1 crore to patients, as per a recent media report.

An amount of Rs. 1 crore was recently refunded to around 142 patients who had complained that private hospitals in the city are charging them excessively for Covid-19 and mucormycosis treatment, after the intervention of the Pune civic administration.  

As per a media report in the Hindustan Times, the civic body issued notices to the hospitals following which the patients who filed the complaints were refunded. The administration also audited bills that were issued to the patients who underwent COVID treatment. The bills were audited to make sure that private hospitals are charging the patients according to the price cap set by the state government.

Also Read:Kerala hospital slapped Rs 14 lakh fine for overcharging COVID patient

The assistant health officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation said, "We were able to recover ₹1 crore and reimburse 142 COVID-19 patients, as of March 28. We have been following up on this since the second wave when there was a drastic demand for beds. We also sent out multiple notices to private hospitals. When these hospitals failed to respond, we issued show cause notices as well. We first sent out a notice, then a reminder letter and then a final notice was sent. The final show cause notice was signed by the additional commissioner, stating that if they fail to respond we might even cancel their license for six months, which we had done previously in case of a hospital, during the lockdown."

After the second wave of COVID-19 that peaked in April 2021, the admission rate was very high. The private hospitals had overcharged the patients despite the state government's price cap. The state government had also instructed the district authorities to audit every COVID-19 patient's bill in order to ensure that the patients are not overcharged by the hospital. However, the officials said that inspite of this, 20 private hospitals were found to be overcharging patients. 

Dr. Naik further told HT, "These hospitals have charged ₹5.95 crore in bills to the patients undergoing treatment for COVID-19, out of which, as per the price cap set by the state government, the bill should have been ₹4.95 crore, and so we were able to reimburse ₹1 crore to these patients."