Days after it capped prices of knee implants in the country, the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA) will take action against 40 hospitals that have not revised prices of knee implants on their websites. The NPPA had asked manufacturers and hospitals to bill patients from August 16 based on the new price ceiling. NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh had also asked hospitals to display revised prices on their website. While no complaints of over pricing have been received by the central body, as a precautionary measure the regulatory body started scrutinizing websites of private hospital to ensure knee implant rates were complied with.
At least 10 hospitals in Delhi, three in Mumbai, four each in Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Noida were not displaying revised prices on their website. In Mumbai, Borivali based Apex Multispecialty hospital, PD Hinduja hospital and HN Reliance Foundation hospital have not displayed the revised knee implant prices. NPPA is set to take action against all three.
In Delhi, hospitals like MGS, Rockland, Apollo Spectra, Eden, Holy Family, Medanta, Moolchand Medcity, Artemis, Maharaja Agrasen and St Stephen’s hospital have not revised the price list on websites.
In August, the NPPA had slashed maximum price of general knee implant by 65 per cent — from Rs 1.58 lakh to Rs 54,720. Revision implants would cost 58-81 per cent less, with current price cap at Rs 1.13 lakh. The cost of High flexibility implants have reduced to Rs 56,490 from Rs 1.8-4.5 lakhs while that of Titanium oxidised zinconium implants have reduced to Rs 76,700 from Rs 2.5-4.5 lakhs.
Earlier this week, the NPPA had inspected websites of 21 hospitals for price capping and found them compliant. In Maharashtra, Food and Drug Administration is conducting separate inspections in private hospitals to ensure patients undergoing knee implants are billed based on revised price ceiling.
