Telangana: On Wednesday, BJP leader in Telangana, K Krishna Saagar Rao urged the state government to take action against private hospitals for overcharging patients of Covid-19 in the state.
“Patients are being levied lakhs of rupees as bills for just a few days of hospitalisation and are being forced to pay without any explanation of bill break-up. Especially for a viral disease which doesn’t even have an approved treatment,” said BJP’s chief spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao.
“Private hospitals are overcharging even when the state government has placed a price cap on costs of Covid-19 isolation and care”,
Due to the increasing number of complaints of people especially in Hyderabad that they are being manipulated heavily by corporate private hospitals by over-charging them disproportionately in the name of Covid- 19 treatment.
They added to ensure the government with strict regulation of medical fees especially for Covid-19 cases in private hospitals and asked the health department to ensure that patients are not overcharged.
Earlier, A doctor at a government hospital in Hyderabad has filed a police complaint alleging that she was charged Rs 1.19 lakh for a day by a private hospital for Covid-19 treatment in violation of the state government’s guidelines on treatment costs.
Despite several instructions to private hospitals to adhere to tariffs decided by the state government, there have been complaints from citizens that private hospitals are overcharging for COVID and non-COVID treatments all across the country.
Currently, Telangana is in the top 10 list of worst hit states nationwide. The state has 27,612 cases, which includes 11,012 patients under treatment and 16,287 who have recovered. At least 313 people have succumbed to the disease in the state.