Delhi CMO's intervention helps family avert inflated COVID-19 bill 

NEW DELHI: A Covid-19 patient admitted in a private hospital in Delhi was not allowed to be discharged by the administration when the family questioned them about the inflated bill they received, which contradicted the price cap set by the state government.

The 43-year-old patient who hails from Gwalior was in Delhi when she tested positive for the coronavirus. The family had admitted her at Maharaja Agrasen Hospital in West Punjabi Bagh. “When we went there, the charges for Covid-19 patients were displayed clearly at the reception. As we were aware of the packages beforehand, we knew there wouldn’t be any issue of over-charging and thus admitted my mother to the facility,” said Jagroop, the patient’s daughter.

The patient admitted on August 27 was to be discharged after 23 days. The family noted that on September 17, they got the final bill, which was more than the amount stated during admission. “The total bill was roughly Rs 4 lakh, of which we had already paid Rs 2.7 lakh during admission in cash. We were told to pay Rs 1.30 lakh more. But when we raised questions over the billing amount which was not matching the price-cap, the authorities started dodging questions,” she said.

“My mother was supposed to be discharged at noon, but she was finally allowed to leave at 8 pm. We had started asking for help in the meantime. Malini Aisola from the All India Drug Action Network came forward to help us. She questioned the hospital about the bill but we were being sent from one department to another. Finally, the hospital got a call from the Chief Minister’s Office and Rs 14,000 was deducted from the bill,” Jagroop stated.

A call was made to Dr Deepak Singla, medical director of the hospital for a reaction. Dr Singla said that he is not aware of such an incident. “Difficult to keep a tab on every individual patient. I don’t have an exact reply to the query,” he added.