Centre caps service charge on Covid-19 vaccines at Rs 150 per dose

In address to nation on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the private hospitals will be allowed to charge a maximum service charge of Rs 150 for a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

New Delhi: The Central Government has capped the service charge collected by private hospitals on Covid-19 vaccines.

In address to nation on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the private hospitals will be allowed to charge a maximum of Rs 150 service charge on per dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

Announcing the revised vaccine policy, the Prime Minister further said the State Governments will have the powers to oversee its implementation.

“Private hospitals will be able to charge a maximum service charge of Rs 150 for a single dose after the fixed price of the vaccine. The task of monitoring it will remain with the state governments,” said the Prime Minister.

According to the new policy, the Centre will buy 75 per cent of jabs from vaccine makers, including 25 per cent of the state quota, and give it for free to state governments to inoculate all above the age of 18 from June 21.

The private hospitals have retained their earlier 25 per cent quota under the revised policy.

Last February, private health care centres were allowed to levy a service charge' from beneficiaries to meet their operational expenses—syringes, needles, manpower, etc – during the Covid-19 vaccination drive.

As some hospitals started charging as high as Rs 500 as service charge per dose, there have been demands to cap or completely roll back these charges.

In a recent pan-India survey by social media platform LocalCircles on the question of service charge on Covid-19 vaccine in private hospitals, 73 per cent of the 9,021 respondents said they were in favour of capping the charges.

While in hospitals it could be capped at Rs 100 to Rs 200, off-site locations such as community centres, societies, colonies, offices and clubs could have a cap of Rs 200 to Rs 400, the respondents said.