The Maharashtra government is likely to continue the capping on hospital charges and treatment for COVID-19 in private hospitals for the next three months.
This news comes ahead of the local authorities taking control of 80 per cent of the beds in the private hospitals in a scheme to regulate treatment costs and expenses that are said to expire on August 31. According to a senior official, the final decision in this regard is awaited, however, the plans are to extend it till November owing to the surge with regards to cases of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the corporate and the trust-run hospitals have been complaining about the capping in the prices. Maharashtra happens to be in the first state in the country which capped the treatment charges for COVID-19. However, following the initiative by Maharashtra, states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana have also followed suit.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had earlier informed the Bombay High Court that it had sent a notice to all private hospitals and care centres regarding the capping of beds and consulting charges for general wards at ₹3,900 per day with ICU and ventilator charges at ₹9,750 per day. The civic body further informed the court that the hospitals were allowed to charge on medicines, pathology and other consumer bills.
The BMC, in an effort to keep the private hospitals in check, had also launched a crackdown on Mumbai's private hospitals for overcharging the patients suffering from the coronavirus. The CMO had revealed that the BMC had appointed an auditor to look into the complaints issued by patients accusing private hospitals of overcharging them during their treatment for coronavirus.
On the other hand, Maharashtra recorded 9,431 fresh cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, July 26, which propelled the tally to 3,75,799. At present, there are 1,48,601 active cases in the state. With 6,044 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 2,13,238.
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