Tamil Nadu Caps Treatment Costs Of COVID-19 Patients

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday decided to cap treatment of Coronavirus patients in the state at Rs.5000 per day in a general ward and Rs.15,000 per day in an ICU ward of any private hospital, media reports said. The state government's decision comes in the wake of several complaints that private hospitals were charging anywhere between Rs.50,000 to Rs.1,00,000 per day for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

West Bengal had earlier taken a similar decision for treatment costs of COVID-19 patients in private hospitals in the state to be capped.

The Supreme Court had also taken up for hearing on Friday, a clutch of petitions which sought capping of treatment costs for novel coronavirus patients. The matter is likely to be listed next week. The apex court sought a reply from the Union government in public interest litigation (PIL) on fees to be charged by private hospitals for treatment to COVID-19 patients. It also wanted a transparent mechanism to be set up for the treatment of COVID-19in private hospitals and the related cost.

Many complaints have been pouring in from several parts of the country about exorbitant treatment costs COVID- 19 patients in private hospitals.

The worst affected epicentres of the Coronavirus are major urban metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Ahmedabad, which have corporate hospitals to handle COVID-19 patients.

It remains to be seen whether a uniform treatment cost policy for COVID-19 patients in private hospitals would evolve either from court directives or from government initiatives in the days and weeks to come.