Bengal Assembly passes Clinical Establishment Bill for transparent hospital billing

Kolkata: The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed the West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2025, aiming to bring more transparency in billing by private hospitals. The bill mandates that all hospitals prominently display fixed rates and package charges at a conspicuous place within the facility.  

The bill, which got the house's nod on the seventh day of the ongoing Monsoon Session, will now go to Governor C.V. Ananda Bose for assent before it becomes a law, news agency IANS reported.

As the Bill was presented in the house, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, participating in the debate, claimed that the issue of the safety of the female doctors, female nurses, female patients and female security staff had not been addressed in the said bill.

The proposed legislation mandates that all clinical establishments must “prominently display fixed rates and package charges at a conspicuous place within the facility” and “maintain electronic medical records for each patient through approved software.” The Bill is still under review and has not yet been admitted by Speaker Biman Banerjee for debate or passage, reports PTI.

Minister of State for Finance (independent charge), Chandrima Bhattacharya, who is also the Minister of State for Health, said that the main aim of the new Bill is to ensure transparency in the billing systems of the private medical establishments in the state.

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According to her, often private medical establishments are charging extra over the amounts mentioned in the packages availed by the patients for treatment there. At the same time, she added, the authorities of these private medical establishments were also not giving proper explanations to the patients’ families on the extra amounts charged over the amount mentioned in the packages.

"The main idea is to eliminate the possibilities of the hidden costs. At times, the charges may exceed the amount mentioned in the packages. But it is the duty of the authorities of the medical establishments concerned to clarify what necessitated the extra charges," Bhattacharya said.

On Wednesday, the West Bengal Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025 will be moved on the floor of the house, which will be followed by a debate.

The Monsoon session of the West Bengal Assembly started on Monday. However, the house was adjourned for the day after “Obituary Mentions” as per protocol. It has resumed from Tuesday and will continue for the next two weeks.

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