Covid treatment bill Rs7.8L, 20-day room rent Rs4.55L

Nagpur: A 63-year-old Covid patient ended up with a bill of Rs7.80 lakh after a 20-day stay in a private hospital in the city. Out of this, Rs4.55 lakh was towards room rent alone.
The patient, whose details have been accessed by TOI, was admitted to Hope Hospital in Teka Naka on Kamptee Road on April 16 and was discharged on May 5. Admitted in a critical state, the man has survived after a long struggle. The days when he was on oxygen, the rate ranged from Rs20,000 to Rs25,000, without oxygen it was Rs15,000 a day.
The patient was admitted in a separate room under 20% of beds of the hospital on which government cap on rates do not apply. The NMC auditors scrutinise bills charged for 80% of beds earmarked as government quota in a hospital, but there is no control over rest of the 20%.
Even though the patient’s kin have not raised a dispute, chances are that there may be major deductions at the time of reimbursement of expenses by insurance company, said sources.
Doctors TOI contacted over the issue said this is a classic case of input costs going up during the pandemic, even as rates to be charged on 80% beds are capped by the government. This leads to hospitals covering losses on the 80% government quota beds from charges levied on the remaining 20% on which there is no cap on rates. A litigation is already underway on his matter.
Dr Murali BK, promoter of Hope Hospital, said the treatment happened after taking the patient’s consent. The patient’s son is also a doctor and a partner in the same hospital.
“The room charges were on a consolidated basis. It included expenses towards oxygen, ventilator, consultants and other ICU management charges. These were all clubbed into one as it was easy for the patient to get an estimation of expenses The patient had consented to the cost,” said Dr Murali.
Even as the government has capped rates for 80% of the beds, there has been no reduction on the input costs. Cost of a number of items had gone up when cases were at peak. Oxygen, which normally costs Rs300 a cylinder, was priced at Rs1,000. Cost of Bi-PAP, through which oxygen is administered, had doubled to Rs70,000, at least. NMC’s bio waste clearance cost has gone up to Rs1.65 lakh as against Rs15,000 earlier, he said.
Dr Murali said even as the patient was kept in a separate room, the charges would have been more or less the same if he would have been in a sharing ward.
One of the insurance consultants, to whom the case was referred to, told TOI that this would give a chance to the insurance company for deductions. “For a number of patients, the insurance cover itself is in the range of Rs5 ot Rs6 lakh. So, if Rs4.5 lakh is charged towards room rent alone, how would one pay for rest of the treatment,” he said.
A source in a corporate hospital said at their end even an executive room does not cost more than Rs12,000, including other costs.