West Bengal panel intervenes to cut COVID-19 patient's bill

The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission intervened to reduce the bill of a dead COVID-19 woman and urged the city-based private hospital which treated her to allow her family members to pay the dues in instalments. The Commission urged that the woman's family be allowed to pay Rs 5,000 over two years to pay the bill.

Kolkata: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission intervened to reduce the bill of a dead COVID-19 woman and urged the city-based private hospital which treated her to allow her family members to pay the dues in instalments, an official said on Saturday. The Commission urged that the woman's family be allowed to pay Rs 5,000 over two years to pay the bill, he said.

Acting on a complaint lodged by a family member of the octogenarian woman of being overcharged and threatened by the authorities of the hospital where she was admitted in July for treatment, the Commission has asked the hospital to reconsider the bill and reduce an amount of Rs 1.7 lakh.

We went through the hospital bill and found that the hospital authorities had charged for medicines, which the family had already paid for while procuring it from the hospital pharmacy. We also found that the family is from an economically weak background but had gone to the private hospital as others suggested ", according to the Commission official.

Read:Hospital keeps body after daughter fails to pay bill in Delhi

Justice (Retired) Ashim Kumar Banerjee said "the woman's family members had paid Rs 2.2 lakh at the time of admission and purchased medicines for her separately. But the hospital had reportedly charged them Rs 6.2 lakh".

The Commission has also registered a suo motu complaint against six private hospitals in the city on the basis of a report published in the media that they were yet to put up on display boards rate charts and treatment costs as per the advisory issued by it.

PTI