Saturday, Apr 20, 2024 | Last Update : 11:31 AM IST
Navi Mumbai hospital slaps Rs 5 lakh bill for corona treatment
As per the order, capped rates will apply to 80% of hospital beds, while the management can charge their own prices for remaining 20%
Mumbai: A 52-year-old succumbed to the Covid-19 infection on Friday at Navi Mumbai’s privately-run DY Patil Hospital. The family of the deceased has alleged that the hospital is refusing to hand over the dead body due to the unpaid bill of ₹5,07,277.
The state government had last month issued a notification to cap treatment charges for Covid-19 and nearly 200 non-COVID19 procedures in private hospitals. Despite this, hospitals have come up with innovative heads like care and hygiene charges, staff management charges and N-95 allocation charges to inflate bills of Covid-19 patients.
As per the order, “The capped rates will apply to 80 per cent of hospital beds, while the management can charge their own prices for the remaining 20 per cent till August 31.”
The deceased, identified as Jafar Choughule (52) died of the deadly disease on Friday evening at DY Patil Hospital. His cousin Rafique Pathan alleged that his brother was in the hospital for a week and the family was handed over a bill of more than `5 lakhs after his demise. This bill included various hidden charges.
Talking to The Asian Age, Mr.Pathan said, “My brother was a blood pressure patient and was working as an engineer with the BEST. We rushed him to the DY Patil Hospital after he was tested positive for the novel coronavirus. This hospital is looting people taking advantage of the situation. The patient was the sole earner of the family and there is no way they could pay so much.”
BJP leader Kirit Somiya said, “There are several occasions where the government has utterly failed to stop the exploitation of these poor people, issuance of capping the price all these things are the pseudo-make-up for fooling the people from this ruling government.”
He added, “On June 16, a teenaged girl was given a bill of around `6.5 lakh by Nanavati Hospital. She was a Covid-19 positive patient and had been admitted in the hospital for 23 days. The bill had heads like care and hygiene charges of Rs 53,850 and staff management charges of Rs 38,000. She then took up the issue with MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande who demanded an audit of the bill.”
