HYDERABAD: The National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority has started investigations into alleged overpricing of drugs by three super speciality hospitals -- Yashoda Hospital, Medicover Hospital and Care Hospital -- after patients who received treatment raised complaints.
In three letters shot to the Chief Medical Officers of the hospitals, the NPPA asked them to furnish details of all the drugs administered to the patients along with the sample of the drug showing the composition. The details have been asked with batch number, manufacturing date, amount charged etc. The letter further noted that the details must be submitted within 15 days to the NPPA office.
The complaint was raised against Medicover Hospital after the patient was charged nearly Rs 2,63,465 for eight days of stay between July 1 to July 8th for COVID-19 treatment. In case of the complaint against Care Hospital, the patient was charged Rs 2,98,479 for just one day’s treatment. At Yashoda, the patient was charged Rs 1,47,675 for four days of treatment.
The NPPA also wrote to the Drugs Control Administration of the Telangana government to look into matters of overcharging in other components of the bills like investigation charges, service charges, ICU charged etc as per the complainants' letters.
It may be recalled that prior to this, the Telangana government had set a price cap of Rs 4,000 per day for isolation wards, Rs 7,500 per day for ICU, and Rs 9,000 per day for ICU with ventilators.
Meanwhile, activist Vijay Gopal who had taken up the issue with the NPPA noted that hospitals must not fleece customers just because there is ignorance and confusion on the items billed. “Consumables and drugs have been overcharged in all three cases. In one such bill, Rs 30 is being charged for syringes. We hope the hospitals respond with the required information or else the NPPA takes up the required action,” said Gopal of Forum Against Corruption.