Thane Covid hospital overcharges patients; loses license

Thane: The civic body in Maharashtra's Thane city on Saturday suspended the license of a private hospital and cancelled its classification as a COVID-19 facility after it allegedly overcharged patients.

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) set up an audit team to examine bills and detected excess billing to the tune of Rs 27 lakh by 15 hospitals.

Based on the findings, the civic body cancelled the classification of a private hospital on Ghodbunder Road for COVID-19 treatment and suspended its license for a month, an official said.

The TMC's audit team had detected excess billing to the tune of Rs 6,08,900 in 56 bills of 797 patients treated by the hospital till July 12, he said.

The civic body has assigned two officials to monitor the treatment of patients who are presently admitted at the hospital and ensure that they are not overcharged, the official said.

Meanwhile, deputy municipal commissioner Sandeep Malavi said the drive against errant hospitals will continue and similar action will be taken in other cases as well.

Maharashtra on Saturday added 9,251 new COVID-19 cases, taking the cumulative count in the state to 3,66,368, the state Health department said.

With 257 more people succumbing to the infection, the toll mounted to 13,389, it said. A record number of 7,227 patients were discharged in the day, taking the count of recovered cases to 2,07,194. The state now has 1,45,785 active cases.

A total of 18,36,920 people have been tested so far for COVID-19, the department said.