Hospitals must display treatment rates prominently: Centre Urges States, UTs
New Delhi: The Centre has asked states and Union territories to ensure that hospitals prominently display treatment rates to improve billing transparency and help patients to understand healthcare costs before undergoing treatment.
In a letter to chief secretaries of all states and Union territories, Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava called for a review of compliance with existing rules and urged authorities to take steps to enforce them effectively. The Ministry said clear disclosure of charges could help patients and their attendants plan expenses, make informed decisions and avoid disputes over hospital bills.
The directive draws attention to existing provisions under the Clinical Establishments Act, 2010, which require registered healthcare facilities to display the rates for services and facilities at a prominent location in both English and the local language. The rules also provide for procedure and service charges to fall within rate ranges determined by the Centre in consultation with states.
However, questions remain over how effectively these requirements are being implemented. Although 19 states and Union territories have adopted the Clinical Establishments Act, the Ministry has asked jurisdictions that do not follow the Act, including Delhi, to use their existing regulatory frameworks to ensure that hospitals disclose their charges.
The Centre has also called for hospitals, wherever applicable, to display treatment package rates offered to foreign patients visiting India on medical or AYUSH visas. The move is intended to help international patients compare costs and make informed choices before travelling for treatment.
Medical representatives, however, have pointed to practical limitations in standardising hospital charges. "Display of hospital rates was enforced long back, but the compliance?" questioned Dr Dilip Bhanushali, former national president of the Indian Medical Association. He said the final bill could vary depending on complications, duration of hospital stay, additional procedures, medicines and investigations, TOI reported.
The director general of the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI) said hospitals generally comply with the requirement to display rates, but the provision concerning prescribed rate ranges remains difficult to implement because the necessary costing exercise has not been completed.
He also raised concerns that the rules do not explicitly account for hospitals' actual procurement costs for medicines, medical devices and consumables. The issue has featured in a Karnataka government circular dated October 1, highlighting the complexities involved in regulating healthcare charges.
The debate comes amid wider concerns about the cost of private healthcare, including hospital bed charges and markups on medicines and medical consumables. Healthcare activists have also called for greater scrutiny of corporate hospital pricing, pointing to consolidation across hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostic centres and insurance businesses.
They argue that when these services operate under the same corporate group, financial incentives may influence where patients purchase medicines or undergo diagnostic tests. Substantial markups on medicines and consumables, they contend, can further increase patients' out-of-pocket expenditure.
The Centre's latest directive focuses on enforcing existing disclosure requirements rather than introducing a new system of price regulation. While visible and accessible rate lists could help patients understand likely expenses, questions over standardised costing, procurement prices and the variation in treatment needs remain central to the wider debate on healthcare affordability.
