Hyderabad Hospital Overcharges COVID-19 Patient, Don't Hand Over Body Over Non-Payment Of Dues
The Telangana High Court has directed the state health officials to conduct an enquiry into alleged overcharging by a private hospital in Hyderabad for treating a COVID-19 patient, who died two days ago.
The court order came in a plea filed by the wife of the COVID-19 patient alleging overcharging by the hospital and that they refused to release the body over non-payment of the dues.
The woman, Lavanya in her complaint alleged that her husband Mahesh Babu, who used to work as a watchman was admitted in the hospital for nine days from July 13 with high fever and respiratory problems.
He later tested positive for COVID-19 and died of the infection on July 22.
The hospital had allegedly charged around Rs 9 lakhs for the treatment, and the family had paid Rs 2.50 lakh, which was borrowed money.
But after the patient died, the hospital refused to hand over the body for cremation over the non-payment of the remaining bill amount of Rs 6.1 lakh.
On Friday, the wife, a daily wage labourer approached the court against the hospital seeking to declare the hospital's actions as illegal and arbitrary. She had requested the court to issue an order directing the hospital to hand over her husband's body without insisting on the payment of the balance amount.?
Her counsel Y Balaji argued that the hospital charged an amount of Rs 8.91 lakh for the patient for nine days which is very high and against the Telangana Government's Order fixing the charges for private hospitals.
He submitted that as per the Government Order, the hospital has to charge only Rs 81,000 (ICU with ventilator and isolation charges of Rs 9,000 per day) but it raised a total bill of Rs 8.91 lakh and demanded payment of the balance for handing over the body.?
When the case came up for hearing, the hospital's counsel informed the court that the body has been handed over to civic authorities and the was cremation performed on Friday afternoon.
The judge expressed unhappiness about the high bills charged by private hospitals for treatment of COVID-19 patients and observed it was against the guidelines and rates fixed by the government.?
Directing the state health authorities to conduct an enquiry into the high charges levied by the hospital, the judge ordered the hospital, the state Home and Health departments to file their counter respective affidavits within six weeks.
