SC asks Centre to formulate unified Covid testing rates

Special Committee submits recommendations on capping private COVID-19 treatment in Capital

NEW DELHI: After weeks of continuous complaints from citizens across the country about exorbitant private hospital rates for the treatment of COVID-19 and varying price caps set for Coronavirus testing in states, the Supreme Court of India on Friday took notice of the issue and observed that there should be uniformity in testing rates across the nation.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah said that the Central government must issue an advisory with uniformed rates of testing to all states and Union Territories so that the state and UT administrations can then take that recommendation as a starting point for regulating rates in their jurisdiction as per their required specifications. The court’s remarks came while it was hearing a suo motu case with respect to the handling of COVID-19 patients in government facilities and the handling of Coronavirus dead bodies. Additional Solicitor-general Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Delhi government informed that court that there were no pending FIRS or cases against doctors or healthcare workers, adding that the action against an LNJP Hospital employee for purportedly recording a video of the hospital had been withdrawn. However, the court veered off into uniformed testing rates across the nation when the LNJP Director submitted that CCTVS shall be installed in all wards, the court said, “Hospitals in all states shall be directed to do the same.”

After remarking that testing rates in states varied by large margins, several intervention applications were also filed in the matter, all of which were directed to be submitted to the Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, as suggestions for the central government to look into before issuing a uniform advisory on the testing rates. Significantly, after a meeting between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Home Minister Amit Shah and LG Anil Baijal; a special committee headed by NITI Aayog Member Dr VK Paul was formed to regulate private COVID-19 treatment and testing. While the committee has already recommended capping tests at Rs 2,400; it has now also suggested that private hospitals should not charge above Rs 10,000/day for normal COVID-19 beds and that ICU beds with ventilators cannot cost more than Rs 18,000/day.

According to a Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson, the rates recommended by Dr Paul's expert committee are for three categories of private hospital beds. For isolation beds in private hospitals, the committee recommended charges between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 per day; for ICU beds without ventilators, the charges were set between Rs 13,000 to Rs 15,000 per day and for ICU beds with ventilators, the charges have been restricted to Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000 per day. While these recommendations have been made for the Capital, these must be approved by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority before the Delhi government notifies it. The committee had assessed that currently, private hospitals were charging anywhere between Rs 24,000 to Rs 54,000 per day for isolation and ICU beds, excluding PPE costs. Several reports have shown that private hospital patients are being billed separately for PPE kits used by healthcare workers attending to them on a daily basis.