Chennai hospital temporarily barred from admitting COVID 19 patients

Chennai:The Tamil Nadu government has temporarily barred the Be Well Hospital in Kilpauk locality here from admitting new Covid-19 patients after receiving an overcharging complaint against it.

Confirming the development, a hospital official told IANS on Saturday on condition of anonymity: "The government has withdrawn the permission to admit fresh Covid-19 patients in one of the three group hospitals in Chennai."

The official said that out of the four Be Well Hospitals in the city, the group had been admitting Covid-19 patients to three hospitals and now the permission for the one in Kilpauk locality has been withdrawn temporarily.

The permission was withdrawn on the allegation that the hospital had overcharged a Covid-19 patient. The bill for that patient came to about Rs 12 lakh.

"The patient was in the intensive care unit (ICU) for 19 days. He had other complications as well and treatment for those was also given. We had been telling him about the estimated cost of treatment," the hospital official said.

According to him, a cheque of about Rs 2 lakh issued by the patient got bounced. The official said the entire case sheet and other documents have been submitted to the government.

The Tamil Nadu government has fixed a maximum amount that a private hospital can charge from a Covid-19 patient. The per day rate for those who do not have any Covid-19 symptoms or those having mild symptoms in the general ward is Rs 5,000 in case of Class A1, A2, A3 and A4 hospitals.

In the case of intensive care unit (ICU) with all facilities, the per day rates in case of A1 and A2 hospitals is Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 and for A3 and A4 hospitals Rs 9,000 to Rs 13,500.

As per the government order, hospitals charging more than the stipulated rates will be removed from the list of approved hospitals under the insurance scheme.

The approved private hospitals will reserve 25 per cent of their bed strength for Covid-19 patients covered under the state government health insurance scheme. Those covered under the state government health insurance scheme need not pay anything to the hospitals, the government had said earlier.