The Health Department, which has been negotiating with hospitals in the private health sector regarding COVID 19 treatment cost packages, has now issued orders fixing the package rates that may be charged by private hospitals
The rates would be the same for treating people under Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhati as well as for patients who would be referred by the government to private hospitals for COVID-19 care.
Accordingly, the rates that may be charged per patient per day have been fixed at ₹2,300 for general ward; ₹3,300 for care in high-dependency unit; ₹6,500 for ICU care without ventilator and ₹11,500 for ICU care with ventilator.
Standardisation
The government had entered into a negotiation with the private hospitals regarding standardisation of treatment costs as the steady rise in the number of hospitalisations of COVID 19 cases had made it evident that sooner rather than later the private health sector would have to step in to aid the government in pandemic management
The new rates are exactly the same that had been proposed by the private hospitals’ representatives themselves, during their meetings with the government. They had also demanded that the COVID-19 rates for treatment under KASP’s pneumonia care package was too low for them to be viable as the cost of PPE required for COVID care itself added significantly to the overall costs.
The government has also allowed private hospitals to charge an additional amount as PPE costs.
