BENGALURU: The Association of Healthcare Providers (India) on Thursday came out with a suggestive cost for treatment of Covid-19 patients in those private hospitals which are not part of any government-run scheme. The pricing was formulated after discussions with its 10,000-odd member hospitals in 21 states and sent to all state governments.
This includes four categories of treatment for Covid-19 patients in a general ward with per-day pricing — ward (Rs 15,000), ward and oxygen support (Rs 20,000), ICU (Rs 25,000) and ICU plus ventilator (Rs 35,000). This does not include high-end drugs like Immunoglobulin, Tocilizumab, plasma therapy and management of co-morbid complications, but only basic general medicines, PPEs and investigations.
“This has been done to allay fears and apprehensions of exorbitant cost of treatment in private hospitals. We are sending this plan to all state governments to begin with and the Centre as well, although it concerns the states more. As more and more patients are referred to private hospitals and the demarcation of Covid-19 and non-COVID-19 hospitals gone, these broad guidelines can be referred to by states to fix the prices,” Dr Girdhar Gyani, Girector General, AHPI, told TNIE.
“There were reports of people being charged Rs 5-7 lakh in some cities. However, with this plan, a person with mild symptoms would be spending Rs 1.5 lakh for 10 days of treatment. It includes the cost of PPE kits and the Covid-19 test,” he said. The costing is based on the assessment carried out in hospitals which are treating Covid-19 patients and have the experience of actual cost related to use of PPEs, infection control, HR aspects of healthcare workers who are deployed in shifts and need to be quarantined.