Notice to hospitals on stent overcharge

New Delhi: Taking a firm stand on implementing price cap on stents, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) cracked a whip against violators. While it has issued notices to recover overcharged amount, strict action is in the offing against those found to be not complying with the notified ceiling prices.

The government had recently cut prices of life-saving coronary stents by up to 85 per cent by capping them at Rs 7,260 for bare metal stents  (BMS) and Rs 29,600 for drug eluting stents (DES). Earlier the average maximum retail price for BMS was Rs 45,000 and DES was Rs 1.21 lakh.

Even as the government has asked the companies to change MRP of the stock, complaints about overcharging of stents became a major cause of concern. In a recent inquiry, the NPPA found hospitals involved in major discrepancies in the bill. “Bills issued to the patients by various hospitals or nursing homes merely indicate the brand name of the stent used. Other essential details such as name of the manufacturer/ importer/batch number/ expiry date etc. have not been mentioned,” said the NPPA.

The price regulator issued showcause notices to management of the hospitals/nursing homes for recovery of the overcharged amount, along with “pre-prosecution” notices under essential commodities Act, 1955. “Action can be taken under Section 7 of the EC Act which includes fine and imprisonment both,” a source said.

According to the NPPA, on perusal of the documents, “especially the bills issued to patients in case of nine hospitals, it is revealed that none of these hospitals have fully complied with the instructions contained in the notification. The type of stent used, whether it is bare metal or drug eluting stent, is also not mentioned in the bills.