MoHFW to hold consultations with state governments on CGHS rates

Union Health Ministry will start consultation with the state governments this week to make the healthcare costs uniform across the nation.

Health Ministry will seek suggestions from the state governments to fix charges for treatments at healthcare centers across the nation.

Uniform treatment charge
This comes after the Supreme Court raised concerns over the wide variation in treatment costs between government and private healthcare centers. It also directed the Centre to expeditiously fix treatment charges to be paid by patients. The Apex court has given six weeks to implement it.

The Supreme Court further criticized the Centre for failing to fix a range of rates within which private hospitals and clinics can charge patients. The court also noted that though a rule was made 12 years ago, the government has not enforced it yet.

The Supreme Court further asserted that citizens have a fundamental right to healthcare, and the government cannot evade its responsibility in ensuring this right while highlighting the stark difference in treatment costs between government and private healthcare centers

Plea by association of healthcare providers
Meanwhile, the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI) which represents small and medium hospitals will file an intervention with the Supreme Court on behalf of the industry this week, Girdhar Gyani, director general of the association, said.

Gyani has written to the Health Ministry recommending working out the costing of various procedures based on established scientific principles and fixing rates in the ‘range’ to address the categorization of establishments.

Likewise, private hospitals have also said that the move will be catastrophic for the industry as there are too many variables involved.

Industry executives said the cost structure differs 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 the hospital adopts, patient safety measures, IT services, etc.” Editorji