MUMBAI: A day after the state issued a notification regulating 80% private hospital beds and capping
treatment charges
for them, confusion prevailed over many aspects such as
deposits hospitals
can charge, to who can allocate beds. But the state claimed at least 12 patients have taken admission to private hospitals on Friday following the notification.
The state came out with price ceilings for Covid and nearly 200 non-Covid procedures at private hospitals on Thursday. The cap applies to private hospitals in the state, including Mumbai’s top hospitals. Under the ceiling, no hospital can charge a Covid-19 patient more than Rs 9,000 per day for an ICU bed with ventilator, Rs 7,500 for an ICU bed without ventilator and Rs 4,000 for isolation in a
routine ward
. Charges include routine investigations, basic medicines, doctor consultation and meals.
But TOI learnt that a 49-year-old King Circle resident was charged Rs 1.30 lakh as deposit for Covid admission by a Mahim hospital, and a Dadar hospital demanded a deposit of Rs40,000 to admit a 40-year-old woman. Dr Sudhakar Shinde, CEO of
State Health Assurance Society
, said there was no cap on deposit.
Private hospitals told TOI they were trying to evolve a formula for deposit. “Looking at per day cost and an average stay of 10 days, deposits can be Rs40,000-50,000, but we are working on that,” said N Santhanam, chairman,
Association of Hospitals
.
On allocation of beds, Dr V Ravishankar of Lilavati Hospital said the understanding was that it would be done the BMC through 1916 helpline, while hospitals can take walk-in admissions. A dashboard displaying availability of beds in public and private sectors was not ready till Friday.