BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has decided to rein in costs in private hospitals and get them to be more transparent in their billing procedures. The state is all set to bring a new bill to regulate the functioning of private hospitals and improve services in government hospitals.
There have been complaints that private hospitals charge patients exorbitantly behind opaque billing systems.
An expert committee headed by retired High Court chief justice Vikramjit Sen has been constituted to study the functioning of private hospitals and suggest measures to regulate them. It will have members from the Health Department, private hospitals, civil society and the legal fraternity.
It will report in eight weeks, minister for health and family welfare Ramesh Kumar said Thursday. The committee's suggestions would be incorporated in the proposed bill.
Presently private hospitals in the state fall under the purview of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act [KPME] 2007. The state government is planning to bring them under the Central-level Clinical Establishment Act [CCEA].
Disclosing other decision, the minister said post-graduate degree and diploma courses would be started in all government medical colleges in the state by the next academic year. Rural candidates will get a higher share of seats in these courses.
Ambulance services will be boosted with the purchase of 367 new ambulances, and Jan Auhsadi pharma stores, which sell generic drugs at low cost, would be opened in 200 hospitals around the state, Ramesh Kumar said.