Pune: Some private hospitals inflated bills of Covid-19 patients by 20%

PUNE: Certain city hospitals treating Covid-19 handed bills that overcharged patients by as much as 20%, a report submitted by the district administration has revealed.
A total of nearly Rs 21 lakh in excess charges was reversed during pre-audit of bills handed to patients by 25 hospitals — all private units.

Officials said a total of 39 bills submitted until August 19 — all exceeding Rs 1.5 lakh — were corrected.
The administration earlier had stated that over 83 hospitals were being investigated for complaints of overcharging. From these, they examined 53 bills that had exceeded Rs 1.5 lakh — 39 such bills were later revised.
The hospitals, it was found, had charged patients excessively for almost everything used during treatment: PPE kits worn by doctors (gloves, masks, etc) medical consumables, syringes, needles, tubes, medical gowns, adhesives and a host of other items.
Officials, who had been appointed by the administration to inspect all bills above Rs 1.5 lakh, told TOI that these charges were revised during a pre-audit stage — before they were handed to families of patients.
These pre-audit teams were appointed after state authorities said they had received numerous complaints of overcharging. The 55 bills that were collected for audits were issued between August 14 and 19 by some of the city’s main hospitals.
The revised bills would now be handed to citizens, officials said.
Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao said more hospitals in the city would now be brought under the auditing system.
“This is just the start. All hospitals have been issued a warning. The Pune Collector and commissioners of both the PMC and PCMC are also likely to carry out surprise inspections of hospitals,” Rao said.
Scores of patients had taken to social media to protest high charges that were often not covered under the insurance cover offered by the state government.
Pune-based activist Salim Sheikh told TOI that many private hospitals that had overcharged Covid-19 patients were yet to face any official action.
He said he had personally taken some of the complaints to the officials appointed by officials from the Pune Municipal Corporation.
State health minister Rajesh Tope had last week directed all divisional commissioners of all the revenue divisions to appoint pre-auditors to keep a check on inflated bills reported by patients.