VIJAYAWADA: Getting medical bills from most hospitals in the city for claiming medical reimbursement is not all that easy. Even many shops refuse to give customers the bills for the household articles they buy. Hospitals and nursing homes are guarded in issuing computerised bills for the cost of treatment incurred by in-patients. One has to pay several trips to hospitals or be prepared to pay extra for medical bills. Hospitals are supposed to give bills to the patients at the time of their discharge. But that is not the case.
Consequently, it’s difficult for patients to claim reimbursement. Even furniture shops, grocery stores, cable TV operators, etc., are not willing to issue bills for the amount the customer spends. V Nageswara Rao was slapped with a bill for Rs 13,000 by the hospital where his daughter got treatment for viral fever for five days. What shocked him further was the hospital’s refusal to give him a proper bill for the treatment cost. All that he got was a scrap of paper for the amount he paid. When Nageswara Rao asked the doctors for a computerised bill, they simply said they didn’t have such facility.
“I want to claim reimbursement from the health insurance firm and I have to submit original bills for the purpose. But to my surprise, the hospital managements just gave a piece of paper. When I insisted on a bill, the doctors said that I should have given the indication at the time of admitting my daughter,” said Nageswara Rao. Just like him, another resident, G Ramudu, who went to a dentist in the city for scaling his teeth paid Rs 500. He didn’t receive any bill.
“When I asked for one, the hospital authorities gave an awful expression and then they simply scribbled something on a piece of paper and gave it to me.” In some cases, hospital managements charge exorbitant cost from those who want a bill. People who want to claim reimbursement from health insurance companies, they should be prepared to pay extra. Speaking to Express, Dr Gangadhar, former IMA president, said, “Though corporate hospitals have no problem to issue computerised bills small nursing homes generally avoid the hassle.
The question of evading tax or GST doesn’t arise but small hospitals are just used to the practice.” Not just hospitals, those coming under the GST slabs, from 5%-18% tax, like pharmacies, laboratories, medical equipment stores, etc.,also refuse bills. Even wholesale grocery shops, furniture stores, educational institutions, cable TV operators etc., won’t issue bills. T Poorna, who recently bought furniture worth Rs 1.2 lakh for his new home, received a special discount of about Rs 10,000. He got the discount on the condition that he should not insist on a bill.
“The shopkeeper told me that he would give me Rs 10,000 discount if I didn’t want a bill,” said Poorna. Educational institutions, too, follow the same rule. They give parents bills for only a part of the fee paid by them. A private junior college charged Rs 70,000 as fee for admission in first-year Intermediate. But the bill the management gave his father was only for Rs 20,000.