Health panel tells hosps to declare rates on sites in West Bengal

Kolkata: All private hospitals and nursing homes have been asked to announce their respective patient care charges on their websites before they revise rates at the beginning of each financial year. The announcement was made on Monday during a meeting of private hospital representatives and the committee formed by the state to bring in regulations on private healthcare units.

The charges to be put up on the websites include that of bed, OPD, investigative tests and cost of surgeries. Many private hospitals revise their rates in April, at the beginning of the financial year. Most private hospitals said rates of various services are regularly updated on their websites.

The meeting precedes the implementation of the recent recommendations on clinical establishment regulations under the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Act. Sources in the health department said the recommendations will include regulation of hospital charges, which is still under discussion. The draft is likely to be shared with the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI) for their opinions and inputs.

"The recommendations on the clinical establishment regulations will include rate regulation on all priv-ate healthcare units across the state, and the rates are being worked out," said a sta-te representative.

Rupak Barua, president, AHEI, and group CEO, AMRI Hospitals, said AHEI is in the process of setting up a three-member committee to deliberate on these recommendations before the next meeting with the government.

"The WBCERC has covered most of the points in the recommendations through advisories over the past few years and these are in practice across most private hospitals There will be few more meetings with private hospitals and other stake holders so that the matter can be sorted out amicably and conclusions can be arrived at consensually," said Barua.

On March 2 the state had set up a committee to oversee the regulations on private hospitals. The committee has representations from the health department, WBCERC and private hospitals. The meeting on Monday had participation from all stakeholders.

"There are few modifications to the act which had been discussed in the meeting and inputs have been sought from all hospitals. There will be a few more meetings involving hospitals in order to arrive at a consensual closure," said R Venkatesh, vice-president, AHEI, and COO, Narayana Health (East & South region).

The WBCERC has, so far, issued close to 35 advisories for private hospitals, of which nearly 15 were during the pandemic. The advisories had capping of bed charges and 10% discount on medicine and consumables. Bengal has close to 3,000 private healthcare units, including diagnostic chains.