{"id":15091,"date":"2020-08-14T17:09:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T17:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/?p=15091"},"modified":"2020-08-14T17:09:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T17:09:53","slug":"kolkata-corona-news-after-pushback-hospitals-take-steps-to-cushion-bill-shock-kolkata-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/?p=15091","title":{"rendered":"Kolkata Corona News: After pushback, hospitals take steps to cushion bill shock | Kolkata News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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KOLKATA: Frequent allegations of inflated billing and lack of transparency in charges have prompted several private hospitals<\/a> in the city to usher in several measures to properly address and explain any query by patients\u2019 kin.
Some hospitals have started issuing detailed break-up of costs and deputing additional staff at the front desk to answer questions; some are providing counselling about the possible treatment costs in advance; some are providing daily bill updates on WhatsApp; yet others are even allowing families to get the bills and modes of treatment verified by their family physicians. <\/p>\n
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In recent weeks, Covid<\/a> patients at multiple hospitals have run up bills in the range of Rs 15-20 lakh, leaving their families drained of resources and their queries unanswered.
AMRI Hospitals has introduced financial counselling at the emergency ward, where families are apprised of the possible cost of treatment.
\u201cWe send daily bill updates on WhatsApp,\u201d said AMRI CEO Rupak Barua. \u201cIn case we decide to change the course of treatment, we form a medical board and either call or hold a video-conference with the family to inform them about the move and its financial implications.\u201d
The hospital has also allowed patients\u2019 families to consult their family doctor on the bill and treatment.
Ruby General Hospital, too, has made changes. The private hospital off the EM Bypass has overhauled its bill generating system and started sending out daily updates of Covid patients\u2019 bills to their families through email and WhatsApp. While the update is a summary of the daily charges, the hospital is ready to provide a more detailed online break-up on demand. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThe daily update is a two-three-page summary, but if a patient party asks for details, we provide an itemized break-up through mail or WhatsApp. The final bill has a day-to-day break-up of the charges and, if the patients\u2019 kin demand it, details of every single expense is provided in a hard copy. We prefer soft bills but the final hard copy is now more elaborate than ever,\u201d said general manager-operations, Subhasish Datta.
He added that in case of queries, the hospital re-verifies and explains the charges. \u201cThis should help prevent allegations of inflated billing and reduce errors, if any, on our part,\u201d said Datta.
At Medica Superspecialty Hospital, two counsellors have been employed to address patients\u2019 billing queries. Whereas the hospital has been sending daily WhatsApp updates of bills since the Covid outbreak in March, the final bill is more detailed than the pre-Covid period. \u201cWhile the daily update has the latest total costs incurred under major heads like bed charges, medicines, investigations and consumables, the final bill lists out every single item and their cost,\u201d said the hospital\u2019s chairperson, Alok Roy.
He added that the counsellors had helped address billing and payment issues at a time access to the hospital was restricted. Patients, Roy said, could approach the counsellors in case they had queries or couldn\u2019t pay the bill. \u201cIn recent weeks, there have been several instances of patient parties approaching counsellors saying they couldn\u2019t afford to pay beyond a certain amount. We immediately start offering concessions by charging only the cost. That brings the bill down substantially,\u201d said Roy.
Peerless Hospital has started sending e-bills on WhatsApp every three-four days. Patients with queries are given a number to call for clarifications. But there have been very few callers, said CEO Sudipto Mitra. \u201cThe regular updates have helped keep patients\u2019 families informed of the expenses. They can now check the heads under which we are charging them on a regular basis so that the final bill is no longer coming as a shock. In any case, an average Covid patient\u2019s bill at our hospital ranges between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh, which is reasonable,\u201d said Mitra.
RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) claimed it had not changed functioning because of Covid, and \u201call patients receive a daily update on their detailed bills and outstanding amounts\u201d. <\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KOLKATA: Frequent allegations of inflated billing and lack of transparency in charges have prompted several private hospitals in the city to usher in several measures to properly address and explain any query by patients\u2019 kin. Some hospitals have started issuing detailed break-up of costs and deputing additional staff at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kolkata"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/1597424994_photo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}