SC asks Govt to identify private hospitals which benefitted from past largesse and, therefore, should treat COVID patients free
As Coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country and the Government healthcare infrastructure begins to burst at the seams, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to identify private hospitals which can treat COVID-19 patients for free or at a minimum cost as many of them have been given land either free or at nominal rates. However, the hospitals are off the hook for now as being a policy issue, the Government would need to take a call on it first. At the moment, patients are being treated for free/minimum cost at Government hospitals across the country. However, those who opt for private healthcare facilities end up paying hefty sums as the cost of treatment in general wards is around Rs 0.8 lakh in Tier-III towns; Rs 1.5 lakh in Tier-II State capitals and Rs 2.5 lakh in metro cities. Co-morbidities push up care costs further.
What complicates the matter is the fact that the Government cannot put a cap on treatment costs like it did for the Corona tests as that will depend on many factors like the place where the patient is being treated; his/her age; whether the person has any co-morbidities; what stage the virus is in, whether it is in the initial stage or has the infection aggravated. Will the s/he go to the ICU or be on oxygen support or will s/he also need a ventilator? Predictably private hospitals are not very keen to shoulder the COVID burden with the Government because they say their bottomlines have already been hit by a decline in patient footfall, limited OPD operations and suspension of the lucrative medical tourism business. Plus the overheads have shot up as they are spending more on disinfection, sterilisation, infection control, isolation wards, staff rotations and quarantines, responsible waste disposal and comprehensive disinfection. Free treatment won’t work even if the hospitals had benefitted from largesse at inception. So while the apex court and the Centre mull how to rope private hospitals in, patients continue to suffer because even having an insurance does not mean that there will be no major out-of-pocket expense. Insurance firms are not paying patients for the PPE, face shields and so on that constitute at least 50 per cent of the total treatment cost for a Corona patient. But what is irking is that while crying about the cost of the PPEs pushing up their expenses, hospitals are glibly glossing over the fact that they are charging all patients for these kits even though one doctor tends to multiple patients wearing one kit. Asking hospitals to lower treatment costs is reasonable but seeking to make it all free will be counter-productive. The larger question right now is how to increase capacities as both public and private facilities are saturated.
