THANE: Thane municipal corporation on Saturday withdrew classification of Horizon Prime hospital as a dedicated Covid-19 hospital and suspended its operating licence for a month following allegations of overcharging.
“It cannot admit new patients but existing ones will continue to be treated as per ICMR protocols. Two officials will monitor the situation till then,” said deputy municipal commissioner Sandeep Malvi.
Officials said overcharging was usually in the guise of PPE and service charges. The management allegedly failed to respond to civic audit objections, officials said.
“An audit team analysed 797 bills of patients treated till July 12 and found overcharging in 56 bills totalling more than Rs 6 lakh. We issued notices on July 20 seeking response a within two days which they ignored,” an officer said.
Dr Hrishikesh Vaidya, medical director at the hospital, said, “The action is harsh and disheartening, when we have been consistently giving services for three months for the well-being of patients. We will appeal before the civic chief,” he said. He attributed the action to miscommunication with the civic administration, adding that the management responded to the notice.
Horizon Prime hospital was classified to treat comorbid Covid positive patients on April 2 by the civic body and was directed to levy charges as per government rates.
A civic panel of auditors found 15 private hospitals indulging in overcharging of patients. “We checked 845 bills, of which, nearly 45% (386) overcharged . We had given show-cause notices to the hospitals. So far, 26 patients have been refunded excess money. Horizon refunded over Rs46,000 to 24 patients, and Rs13,000 was refunded to two patients by another hospital,” said a civic official.
Meanwhile, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) which recently formed a flying squad issued notices to three hospitals and recovered more than Rs 3 lakh from one which charged excessively a patient’s relative who died during treatment.
Vinay Kulkarni, who heads the squad, said, “We recently received complaints from relatives of a Covid patient who died during treatment saying the hospital charged Rs 4.8 lakh. We verified and found the hospital had charged an excess amount of Rs 3,36,000 from the patient’s relative.”
The team also received complaints against two other hospitals and notices have been issued.
“It cannot admit new patients but existing ones will continue to be treated as per ICMR protocols. Two officials will monitor the situation till then,” said deputy municipal commissioner Sandeep Malvi.
Officials said overcharging was usually in the guise of PPE and service charges. The management allegedly failed to respond to civic audit objections, officials said.
“An audit team analysed 797 bills of patients treated till July 12 and found overcharging in 56 bills totalling more than Rs 6 lakh. We issued notices on July 20 seeking response a within two days which they ignored,” an officer said.
Dr Hrishikesh Vaidya, medical director at the hospital, said, “The action is harsh and disheartening, when we have been consistently giving services for three months for the well-being of patients. We will appeal before the civic chief,” he said. He attributed the action to miscommunication with the civic administration, adding that the management responded to the notice.
Horizon Prime hospital was classified to treat comorbid Covid positive patients on April 2 by the civic body and was directed to levy charges as per government rates.
A civic panel of auditors found 15 private hospitals indulging in overcharging of patients. “We checked 845 bills, of which, nearly 45% (386) overcharged . We had given show-cause notices to the hospitals. So far, 26 patients have been refunded excess money. Horizon refunded over Rs46,000 to 24 patients, and Rs13,000 was refunded to two patients by another hospital,” said a civic official.
Meanwhile, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) which recently formed a flying squad issued notices to three hospitals and recovered more than Rs 3 lakh from one which charged excessively a patient’s relative who died during treatment.
Vinay Kulkarni, who heads the squad, said, “We recently received complaints from relatives of a Covid patient who died during treatment saying the hospital charged Rs 4.8 lakh. We verified and found the hospital had charged an excess amount of Rs 3,36,000 from the patient’s relative.”
The team also received complaints against two other hospitals and notices have been issued.
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