Angioplasty stays costly despite cap on stent prices

Hyderabad: The drug controller is receiving complaints about doctors and hospitals hiking cost of angioplasty, surgery charges and laboratory tests.  
People are allegedly being charged Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for angioplasty.

In most of the bills, the stent price is not being mentioned separately. Drug controller Amruth Rao said, “A notification by the government has stated that all medical establishments must mention the cost of coronary stent along with brand name, name of the manufacturer, importer, batch number and other details in their bills to the patients. This has to be strictly followed. But some of the hospitals are not following it, which is giving rise to these complaints.”

People who are paying via insurance are finding that the bill cost is still the same and there are no major changes which were expected. Drug-eluting stents and bioresorbable vascular scaffolds are priced at Rs 29,600, and bare metal stent at Rs 7,260. Including VAT and other local taxes, the price of these stents can increase by Rs 500 or Rs 1000.

A senior cardiologist said, “The price of angioplasty as fixed under Aarogyasri package is Rs 65,000 for these patients. But others have a package ranging from Rs 1 lakh and above because of increasing operational costs like electricity, maintenance of cath lab and medical personnel. It would be wrong to say that if the prices of the device have come down, then the price of the procedure must also reduce.”

But people are confused at the ground level as the direct benefit which they expected to see is not visible. A senior drug control officer said, “In our meeting with the hospital association, we made it very clear that stents must be provided at the price fixed by the government. If there is any other increase in operational costs, it is very difficult to verify. People are getting angry because what they expected in terms of drastic reduction in the procedure costs is not being seen, hence, they are complaining.”