Telangana: Recovered Rs 3 crore excess charges from private hospitals

HYDERABAD: Telangana public health and family welfare department director Dr G Srinivas Rao on Wednesday informed the Telangana high court that they had recovered Rs 3 crore from the private hospitals that overcharged patients during the first wave of Covid-19. Rao had been summoned before the court as the judges were unhappy with an earlier affidavit that lacked details.
Asked about the ongoing second wave exploitation, the director said that he ensured a refund of Rs 10 lakh to an exploited patient who was made to pay Rs 17 lakh to a private hospital.
The bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy also sought to know why the state failed to comply with an order of the court asking them to bring out a fresh order capping various charges in private hospitals.
The bench asked him to respond to the queries of advocates Karam C Kommireddy, L Ravi Chander, and N S Arjun Kumar who informed the bench that the Andhra Pradesh government was launching criminal proceedings against promoters of errant private hospitals. This is apart from slapping penalty equivalent to ten times of the excess charges and appointing nodal officers to oversee the payment at private hospitals.
Rao contended that there are more than 1,250 private hospitals in Telangana and it was not possible to appoint nodal officers to each of them. The bench advised him to appoint one nodal officer for all corporate hospitals and similarly one for other categories.
Rao explained that they received 174 complaints against private hospitals. “We issued show-cause notices to 139 hospitals,” he said. “Most of the complaints were about excess charging. After studying explanations, we were not satisfied with the replies given by 22 hospitals and hence we terminated their licenses. They crossed all limits. Some of them had even obtained prior undertakings from the patients that they will not take legal action on the hospital charges levied on them.”
Chief Justice Kohli made it clear that such undertakings do not carry weight before the courts. The bench wanted the state to bring out a fresh order on capping charges for tests, treatment, stay at private hospitals. “We asked you to do so. Your affidavit is silent on this,” the bench said while adjourning the case to June 10. “Come with a copy of the GO on that day. Otherwise, the state health secretary has to appear before us on that day to explain the reasons for the failure,” the bench said.
The bench said it would be better if the health director threatens the private hospitals with the cancellation of licenses and ensure recovery of excess money from them rather than straight away cancelling their licenses.