Kerala: Private hospital, which slapped Rs 5 lakh bill, settles for Rs 1 lakh

KOLLAM: After a Covid-positive woman was served a bill of over Rs 5 lakh for her treatment, it settled the bill after she paid Rs 1 lakh on Monday.
On April 19, a 50-year-old woman from Vadakkevila was admitted to Meditrina hospital for Covid treatment. Hospital authorities had told her relatives that they would charge Rs 12,000/day and they had paid Rs. 45,000 as advance. But after one week, the ICU bill alone touched Rs 2,50,000. As the patient’s relatives did not pay the bill on May 7, they were given another bill amounting to Rs 5,10, 189.
As they could not pay such a hefty sum, the patient was not allowed to get discharged from the hospital. Then, the incident was widely reported by the media and the collector asked the district medical officer to conduct an enquiry and file a report.
Following this, hospital authorities decided to settle the bill and asked the patient to pay Rs 1 lakh. After paying this amount, she was allowed to go home on Monday. Hospital authorities claimed that they did not charge exorbitant rates. “As the patient had to be admitted to ICU and placed on the ventilator, naturally the bill amount accumulated over time,” claimed hospital authorities.
But, it has been pointed out that hospital authorities settled for a lesser amount in view of the complaint and fearing government action following the high court‘s orders to fix the standard rate for Covid treatment in private hospitals.