Executives at private hospitals say that the move will be “catastrophic” for the industry and will affect the quality of healthcare.
The Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI), which represents medium and small hospitals, has decided to approach the Supreme Court on behalf of the industry.
“This whole business of standardisation is immensely difficult in healthcare simply because of complications in it. The cost structure is different in each hospital as it depends on various factors like the experience of the doctors, facilities in the OT, the kind of infection control policy which is adopted by the hospital, patient safety measures, IT services, etc. Price cannot be standardised for a big hospital and a small clinic,” an executive said.
The Supreme Court raised concern over the wide variation in the cost of treatment between government and private healthcare facilities. The court highlighted the stark contrast in prices, asserting that citizens have a fundamental right to healthcare, and the government cannot evade its responsibility in ensuring this right.
“It is unbelievable. The cost depends on so many other factors, even geographies. The input cost is higher in Delhi than in UP. Since the minimum wages are lower in UP, the hospital may choose to pass it on to the patients. But the same cannot be applied in a place like Delhi. If it is standardised, the quality will suffer,” said another executive.AHPI director general Girdhar Gyani said that they will approach the court with their apprehensions.Gyani has also written to the health ministry recommending to work out costing of various procedures based on established scientific principles and fix rates in the ‘range’ to address the categorisation of establishments.
Meanwhile, shares of hospital chains saw a sharp slump up to 8% on the BSE. Max Healthcare tumbled 8.6% to a one-month low. Medanta, Rainbow Children Medicare, Apollo Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare fell 2-8% in intra-day trade on BSE.
