DEHRADUN: Twenty-nine dedicated Covid-19 hospitals in Uttarakhand’s capital overcharged patients — some by as much as 50% — and amassed “crores” during the pandemic despite a government cap in place on charges of coronavirus treatments, a state health department investigation has found.
The Uttarakhand government had issued a government order (GO) in September 2020, capping per-day prices of Covid treatments. Health officials have started recovery of the amount charged over and above the government mandate and the amount is being distributed to those affected.
Dr Manoj Upreti, Dehradun chief medical officer (CMO), told TOI that so far Rs 1.5 crore have been recovered. “The investigation is on. We expect to recover more in the coming days. As of now, we know of 290 cases where patients were overcharged,” he said.
The matter came to light after a brother-sister duo filed a complaint with the CMO office in November 2020, alleging exorbitant treatment charges by a Covid centre.
The hospital was among 30 private hospitals that had been turned into Dedicated Covid Hospital Centers (DCHCs) in Dehradun. Medical centres in Dehradun cater to the entire Garhwal division which has threadbare infrastructure in the hills.
Officials then sought a record of bills of all Covid-19 hospitals to check their pricing. Several anomalies emerged. Instead of the government-mandated charges of Covid packages, all the hospitals, barring one, had charged several times over during the first and the second Covid wave, even for things such as oxygen that were supposed to be free under the package.
According to Dr Sanjeev Datt, deputy chief medical officer of Dehradun district, the government had capped per-day package rates for Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals between Rs 6,400 and Rs 12,000.
“This included the cost of medicines, pathological tests, X-ray, CT Scan, doctor consultation, doctor visit, room rate, food, nursing care and transfusion of blood and plasma. But these hospitals were found charging extra for all these services,” he said.
Consequently, many families ended up emptying their savings for treatment. Rashmi Chauhan, who filed the initial complaint, told TOI that her family incurred a bill of Rs 8 lakh after her father was admitted to the hospital for a month. “We got him admitted to the centre and prices for treatment were supposed to be capped. But we had to pay whatever they asked. After our complaint, the health department investigated the matter and recently we have recovered Rs 2 lakh from the hospital,” said the 27-year-old.
Jyoti Verma, a mother of two, also had to struggle to arrange money for her husband’s treatment. “He passed away in May this year after catching Covid-19. He was in the hospital for a week and we were charged nearly Rs 5 lakh,” she said.
Dr Sudhir Pandey, district immunisation officer involved in the investigation, said the CMO office has also written to the Dehradun SSP to lodge an FIR against one of the hospitals that has failed to comply with its directions and return a total amount of Rs 15 lakh to patients it had fleeced.
