Karnataka has directed private hospitals to display the rates of important medical procedures at reception counters and maintain a register listing prices for other procedures, Health Minister UT Khader said after a meeting with the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA).
The order is intended to give patients and their families clearer information before treatment begins. Khader said hospitals offer more than 4,000 medical procedures, making it impractical to display every rate on a public board. Instead, hospitals have been asked to put up large, readable charts for key procedures and keep a detailed price register for the rest.
The minister also said hospitals should not withhold a patient’s body because of unpaid bills. He said the government would formulate a clear policy to address the issue, but did not announce a specific implementation date in the statement reported by Times of India.
PHANA agreed to the proposal, according to Khader. The association also explained that treatment costs vary between hospitals because of differences in facilities, infrastructure and other operating factors. Khader said there should nevertheless be a limit on the variation in charges for the same procedure.
The minister linked hospital pricing to ownership structures, saying that prices were generally more controlled in hospitals run by doctor-owners. He alleged that hospitals acquired by foreign investors and operated as chains under their existing names charged steep corporate rates. Khader said the state government wanted to discuss restrictions on foreign investment in healthcare with the Centre and suggested that any permitted foreign investment should be accompanied by price caps.
The announcement comes as the state is also examining the pricing of medicines sold through hospitals. Khader said private hospitals had sought six months to implement an earlier government order requiring them to display the maximum retail price and landing costs of non-scheduled drugs. That order was expected to come into force on November 1, but the minister said the government could not automatically grant the requested extension.
The Food and Drug Administration commissioner and other officials will examine the time required to implement the proposed changes, Khader said. The government will also wait for a court hearing scheduled for October 27 before deciding its next steps on the medicine-pricing order.
Khader said he had decided to meet pharmaceutical companies after hospitals claimed they were procuring medicines at prices significantly higher than manufacturing costs. The health department also plans to meet insurance companies to examine why a procedure costing Rs 1 lakh at a hospital can result in a bill of Rs 3 lakh. The government’s next decisions are expected after the officials’ review and the October 27 court hearing.
