Vijayawada: Regulation of hospitals by the government is abysmally poor in the state. Hospitals are not checked anywhere in the state to ensure they comply with the rules and health officials say, erroneously, that they can only act of they get a complaint.
There are hospitals that charge patients differently for the same service. Prices can vary depending on whether a patient has medical insurance.
Diagnostic tests conducted on those who have insurance policies are charged according to the rates approved by the concerned insurance agencies, whereas the same tests are charged at a higher rate if a patient pays directly to the hospital.
The government only pays a specified amount for any particular service under NTR Vaidya Seva. Hospitals are charging 20 to 30 per cent more from the other patients. In fact, the Andhra Pradesh Speciality Hospitals Association has publicly opposed the proposal of health for all scheme proposed by the state government.
President of the Indian Medical Association, Andhra Pradesh chapter, Dr P Gangadhar Rao, accuses some corporate hospitals of malpractices in charging customers. He says that though it is not possible for any hospital to display all the charges for all ailments as treatment procedures vary from patient to patient, the costs of standard procedures like diagnostic tests, consultation fee, room rent etc can be displayed.
General secretary of the Praja Arogya Vedika, Dr D Suresh, says the Private Medical Care Establishments' Act 2007 has remained on paper since its inception and the dual pricing resorted to by hospitals goes on unabated.
