PMC eliminates 60 staffers on bill audit and bed mgmt duty across pvt hospitals

Sudden move questioned by activists amid fears of second wave; they moot pressure from facilities; PMC’s health chief justifies step saying cases are less

The sudden move of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to eliminate all its staffers deployed for COVID-19 bill auditing and bed management at the city’s private hospitals has raised several questions.

Audit work on all remaining post-billing complaints is now pending, leading activists to ask why PMC — whose officebearers are already predicting a second wave of the pandemic — is in such a huge hurry to remove a mechanism that is in place and well-oiled. They also mooted pressure from private hospitals.

Top PMC health department officials justified the move, stating that since there are not so many infected cases cropping up right now, so much staff is not required — but at the same time, health officials on ground have been left perplexed by the decision.

Meanwhile, Indian Medical Association (IMA) members are completely on board with the step. They have even countered PMC’s claims that this team helped citizens extensively in the first place, and have stated that PMC auditors saved very little money and were not needed anyway.

According to PMC, its audit system for billing complaints had proved to be of great relief for many citizens. According to data provided by the civic body since July this year, they had received almost 849 complaints of excessive billing at private hospitals during the course of the pandemic. Some 551 of these bills were found to be excessive. Through this process, bills worth more than Rs 2 crore were reduced, with at least 25 auditors dedicatedly deployed with this responsibility at various hospitals.

However, in a sudden order issued last week, the civic body removed all these auditors from duty. Alongside, staffers deployed for bed management at private hospitals were also removed. This workforce had been deployed after the civic body received multiple complaints about bed availability when the peak of COVID-19 cases began. And, although cases have reduced at the moment, even today, at least 300-400 cases a day crop up, with over 5,000 active cases in the city at present in PMC limits.

In total, almost 60 staffers were removed from these posts via the order issued by PMC. The sudden decision also left some health department officials confused. One such senior official of PMC’s health department shared on condition of anonymity, “All the work of these teams was still going on. Around 40 of the staffers were working on bed management, while 25 were doing audit work. We have almost 50 more bills pending for audit. Despite this, the entire staff was culled without our knowledge. Officials have now personally started getting calls for bed availability and management. We still do not know why the decision was taken. But, it has left us helpless.”

Activists also questioned the move, citing that PMC office-bearers are predicting the possibility of a second wave soon, as seen in European countries. Questioning if the decision was taken under pressure, health activist Abhijeet More said, “Citizens had a forum to raise their complaints with this staff, which was a relief. It helped in cases where billing was not done as per PMC orders. Also, as far as the current status of cases is concerned, those in the state are already going up. The test positivity rate in the city is still 9-10 per cent. Office-bearers, including the Mayor, have stated the possibility of a second wave. Then, why have PMC officials taken such a hurried decision? They faced a crisis when the pandemic broke out, so why risk breaking an existing system? Was there any pressure from private hospitals that led to this development?”

At the same time, IMA members stated that there was no need for deployment of this staff in the first place. Dr Sanjay Patil, president of the Hospital Board of India, Pune chapter, said, “We have analysed claims made by PMC as far as billing audits are concerned. It came to our notice that not more than Rs 10,000 were saved per patient on average — the discount that hospitals normally provide, too. The ratio of the number of total patients to the ones whose bills PMC claims to have reduced is also very low. So, there was no need for deploying these auditors. As far as bed management is concerned, bed availability is not a problem now.”

Top PMC officials also justified the move, but asserted that the audit process is not going to stop entirely. Dr Ashish Bharati, head of PMC’s health department, said, “The decision was taken against the backdrop of reduced cases right now. However, we are going to seek deployment of these teams as per emerging requirements. We just might not need the entire staff. The audit process will have to continue till the time that COVID-19 cases crop up — that cannot be stopped.”