Rs 54-lakh bill for 10-day treatment at hospital in Hyderabad

Family members of the patient so far paid Rs 20 lakhs

Hyderabad: Yet another incident of patients being charged exorbitantly by private hospitals in Hyderabad came to the limelight.

As per a hospital bill shared by spokesman Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) Amjed Ullah Khan, a patient by name Syed Rahmath Uddin has been charged Rs 54 lakhs for 10-day treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad.

Khan also mentioned that the family members of the patient so far paid Rs 20 lakhs.

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Khan, in another tweet, mentioned that the hospital is demanding Rs 29 lakhs more and requested the concerned authorities to take necessary action to shift the patient to Gandhi or NIMS hospital.

Inflated bills by private hospitals

It is not the first time, earlier too, private hospitals in Hyderabad were in focus when some of them inflated bills for COVID treatment.

Earlier, the Telangana Public Health and Family Welfare Department asked 44 private hospitals to refund money to patients who were overcharged during COVID treatment. Out of them, four hospitals returned more than 10 lakhs each.

Eight hospitals returned amounts somewhere between Rs. 5 lakhs and 10 lakhs. Five hospitals returned amounts that range from Rs 3.2 lakhs to Rs 399440.

As per the details revealed by an RTI reply, a total of Rs 1,61,22,484 was returned to the patients as of June 22, 2021.

People hesitate to visit private hospitals in Hyderabad

Usually, middle-class and BPL people hesitate to visit private hospitals in Hyderabad due to heavy medical costs. Their problem becomes adverse at the hospitals if patients are not covered under any health insurance.

Though government schemes exist to help poor people avail treatment at a private hospital, they have an upper cap.

For example, after the merger of the Telangana government’s Aarogyasri Health Scheme and Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Scheme, maximum health protection has gone up to Rs 5 lakh per family per annum.

Apart from the upper cap, the scheme covers a set of diseases only.

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