The commission\u2019s orders are binding on private hospitals. It says it has come across several instances of hospitals charging hefty amounts for pathological tests, some of which, it felt, could be \u201cunnecessary\u201d. The trigger was the case of a private hospital in Dum Dum, which sent a bill of Rs 22 lakh for treating a Covid patient. <\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cWe went through the bill. Of the Rs 22 lakh, Rs 7 lakh alone was on account of pathological tests,\u201d said Justice Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the commission\u2019s chairperson. \u201cWe have also been getting reports of some costly tests being repeated, putting a financial burden on the patient. That is why we set up the expert committee to come with a model pathological guideline.\u201d
Sources said the patient in question was a doctor from North 24 Parganas. He was ultimately shifted to a government facility, where he died during treatment. After the commission stepped in, the private hospital waived Rs 7 lakh from the total bill.
The commission, however, acknowledged the \u201cconfusing\u201d nature of the virus. This, it said, sometimes forces doctors to go for various investigative procedures and tests which push up the bill, while not being actually helpful.
\u201cHence, the commission feels it expedient to have a model pathological guideline for Covid-19 treatment with or without co-morbidities,\u201d said an order from the commission on Monday.
The eight-member expert committee consists of two WBCERC members, four doctors from state-run medical colleges and two doctors attached with private hospitals.
While senior physician Sukumar Mukherjee and Maityree Banerjee are from WBCERC, three SSKM doctors \u2014 Subhankar Chowdhury, endocrinology head; Raja Roy, microbiology head; and Sarbari Swaika of the critical care department \u2014 and Bibhuti Saha, tropical medicine head at School of Tropical Medicine, are from the government sector. Critical care specialist Susruta Bandyopadhyay of AMRI Salt Lake and internal medicine specialist Tanmoy Banerjee of Medica Superspecialty Hospital are also in the committee.
The committee is expected to meet later this week to draft the guidelines.
Private hospital administrators said they expected the guideline to be fair, and not restrict doctors from prescribing tests they feel could be essential. \u201cThe treating doctor would be the final authority to decide on the kind and number of tests. But a guideline would obviously deter a doctor from asking for unnecessary tests,\u201d said a source in the commission.
A few days ago, the health panel, in an advisory to hospitals, asked them to intimate the patient\u2019s relatives in case there was a need for conducting an investigative test that costs above Rs 2,000. Hospitals have also been asked to inform the patient\u2019s family citing reasons for the reasons for repeating a test. <\/div>\n