Fortis Gurgaon marked up prices of consumables by nearly 1800%
, ET Bureau|
Dec 15, 2017, 09.58 PM IST
Gurugram-based Fortis Memorial Research Institute marked up the prices of medicines and consumables billed to the family of a seven-year-old severe dengue patient by up to 1800%, shows a new report released by the Indian drug pricing watchdog.
ET is awaiting Fortis' response and will update this story once the hospital sends it.
Following allegations by the patient's parents that the hospital overcharged them and were medically negligent, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) last month sought a report and details of the prices of medicines, gloves and syringes charged from Fortis.
In an office memorandum released late on Friday, NPPA displayed the prices at which Fortis procured the medicines from distributors, the maximum retail prices at which the hospital billed the family and how much each medicine and consumable was marked up.
The regulator said it has analysed and classified the information received from Fortis into three categories--medicines under price control, medicines not under price control and consumables that were neither under price control nor under the country's list of essential medicines.
For medicines under price control, the mark-ups that Fortis took were anywhere between 5% and 350%. For those not under price control, the family was billed anywhere between 10-200%.
Yet, for consumables, the family was charged as much as 1737% more than what the hospital paid for the products.
"NPPA shall be taking necessary follow up action as per existing law and within its jurisdiction," stated NPPA in its notification.
It is not clear whether this means that NPPA will ask Fortis to pay for overcharging or whether this signals more price caps using the regulator's emergency powers under section 19 of the Drugs Prices Control Order, 2013.
The regulator's notification did not specify whether the hospital was guilty of overcharging and NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh could not be reached for comment.
According to the DPCO 2013, the markups for retailers for scheduled drugs are 16%. Fortis, in this case acting as the point of sale to the family, has completely violated this. In the cases of non-scheduled and conssumables also, Fortis has kept obscene margins above the procurement prices," Malini Aisola of patient group AIDAN told ET.
"We suggest the government take the strictest action to curb the excessive markups charged by private hospitals which has become the norm and bring immediate price control on medical devices deemed as drugs," she added.
ET is awaiting Fortis' response and will update this story once the hospital sends it.
Following allegations by the patient's parents that the hospital overcharged them and were medically negligent, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) last month sought a report and details of the prices of medicines, gloves and syringes charged from Fortis.
In an office memorandum released late on Friday, NPPA displayed the prices at which Fortis procured the medicines from distributors, the maximum retail prices at which the hospital billed the family and how much each medicine and consumable was marked up.
The regulator said it has analysed and classified the information received from Fortis into three categories--medicines under price control, medicines not under price control and consumables that were neither under price control nor under the country's list of essential medicines.
For medicines under price control, the mark-ups that Fortis took were anywhere between 5% and 350%. For those not under price control, the family was billed anywhere between 10-200%.
Yet, for consumables, the family was charged as much as 1737% more than what the hospital paid for the products.
"NPPA shall be taking necessary follow up action as per existing law and within its jurisdiction," stated NPPA in its notification.
It is not clear whether this means that NPPA will ask Fortis to pay for overcharging or whether this signals more price caps using the regulator's emergency powers under section 19 of the Drugs Prices Control Order, 2013.
The regulator's notification did not specify whether the hospital was guilty of overcharging and NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh could not be reached for comment.
According to the DPCO 2013, the markups for retailers for scheduled drugs are 16%. Fortis, in this case acting as the point of sale to the family, has completely violated this. In the cases of non-scheduled and conssumables also, Fortis has kept obscene margins above the procurement prices," Malini Aisola of patient group AIDAN told ET.
"We suggest the government take the strictest action to curb the excessive markups charged by private hospitals which has become the norm and bring immediate price control on medical devices deemed as drugs," she added.
