A government order (GO) issued on August 16 fixing treatment package rates for post-COVID complications for APL (above poverty line) patients in government and private hospitals has kicked up a controversy. The government had earlier stated that COVID care will be free of cost for all in government hospitals.
Public health experts said that as COVID cases and long-term COVID-related complications suffered by those who survived the disease continued to go up, the government imposing charges for treatment of such conditions even in public sector hospitals would increase the health expenditure and impoverish people.
What is more curious is that the GO states that “post-COVID conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience more than four weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.” It also states that “these conditions can have different types and combinations of health problems for various lengths of time.”
But in the same breath, the GO states that “for fixing the treatment charges, Post COVID Syndrome presentation may be defined as any patient treated for COVID-19 but still requires hospitalisation for symptoms compatible with COVID-19 within three weeks of turning negative.”
By fixing a time frame for post-COVID conditions which the GO itself says can be for “various lengths of time,” the government would be denying free care for thousands suffering from the long-term effects of COVID.
Even the basic premise in the GO that all those categorised as APL can afford to pay their treatment charges was wrong, pointed out S.S. Lal, a public health expert. There are many families who are not BPL but who are not covered by the Government’s Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhati. The rates fixed by the GO are also arbitrary, it is pointed out.
At a time when people are struggling to survive the economic devastation of COVID, alongside the ravages of the disease itself, the government backing off from providing free care cannot happen, Dr. Lal said.
According to the GO, for post-COVID syndrome care, the APL category will be charged ₹750 a day for the ward, ₹1,250 for treatment in high dependency units, ₹1,500 for ICU care and ₹2,000 for ICU plus ventilator care.
The rates for private hospitals range from ₹2,645 to ₹15,180, depending on bed strength and NABH/non-NABH status of hospitals.
