2 pvt hospitals told to refund part of bill amount after Regulatory Commission finds discrepancies

Kolkata: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) on Friday asked two private hospitals to refund a portion of the amount they had charged from two patients in separate incidents as billing discrepancies were found.

In an interim order issued by the WBCERC on Friday, R-fleming Hospital in the city has been instructed to refund around Rs 1.45 lakh to a male patient who was allegedly overcharged by the hospital authorities. The hospital charged the patient Rs 3.45 lakh. The patient took part in the virtual hearing and told the Commission that he was admitted for only six days. Apart from two dialysis sessions, no other procedure was conducted and hence the money, the hospital charged, was totally unjustifiable.

The patient also claimed that when the breakup was sought, the hospital said they had charged as per package.

"We have passed an interim order instructing the hospital to pay back around Rs 1.45 to the patient immediately. The hospital has also been asked to file an affidavit stating its version. We assumed if the hospital charges at most Rs 30,000 per day, the total amount for six days would not exceed Rs 1.80 lakh. Judgment would be pronounced after the final hearing and considering all aspects," WBCERC Chairperson, Justice (retired) Ashim Banerjee said.

In a similar incident, the BP Poddar Hospital has been asked by the Commission to repay around Rs 61,000 to a patient after it found that the hospital had overcharged on various pretexts. The patient could not take part in the hearing but the WBCERC officials spotted extra charges.

In another development, Dum Dum's ILS Hospital was asked to refund Rs 15,000 taken in excess from a patient as PPE charges. The hospital assured the Commission that they would refund the amount and the incident happened in the initial stage when there were no specific directions from the Commission.

"All private hospitals are complying with the advisories issued by the Commission. We have not come across any treatment-related grievances during the pandemic. The complaints are mostly related to billing issues. We have no specific information related to hospitals flouting our advisories," Justice Banerjee told reporters during a virtual press conference.

The Commission also instructed the District Magistrate of South 24-Parganas to conduct a probe into an incident in which Jagannath Gupta Hospital in Budge Budge has been accused of demanding Rs 1 lakh from a patient, entitled to get free treatment under the West Bengal Health Scheme for Covid treatment. It was alleged that the hospital told the patient that he had tested positive but did not provide any copy of the report. The hospital also said that they would treat the patient for seven days for which they would collect Rs 1 lakh. The patient later received treatment at a government hospital.

Banerjee, along with the Secretaries, held a meeting with the representatives from private hospitals on Friday evening when the latter said it would be difficult for them to revise bed charges, as instructed by the Commission in the earlier advisory, as new bed charges have been implemented from April 1.

Earlier, the Commission in its advisory had urged the hospitals to go back to the bed charges of March 1 before the outbreak happened.

Banerjee requested the private hospitals that their appeal would be reconsidered after the Covid situation gets over. The private hospitals also raised the issue of revision in a 10 per cent discount on medicines and 20 per cent off on the cost of consumables in case of corporate and insurance patients. Banerjee told them in such cases, an earlier advisory that mandates the discount would not be applicable any more. The private hospitals also pointed out that they do not get a discount on certain medicines. The Commission urged the hospitals to list them out so that the panel could talk to the manufacturers regarding the same.