Tamil Nadu government fixes rates for COVID-19 treatment across private hospitals, as cases near 30,000
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The state government has been emphasizing that government and private hospitals must come and fight together in this battle against Corona virus to ensure that the health infrastructure can deal with the pandemic in a better manner.
The Tamil Nadu government has capped the daily rate for treatment of COVID-19 patients in private hospitals across the state. This comes after complaints, demands from the public due to overcharging private hospitals and the mounting pressure on government hospitals. Earlier this week, the state had permitted those covered under the CM’s health insurance scheme (economically weaker sections) to avail free treatment in private hospitals.
As per the latest statement from the Tamil Nadu government, for asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients, private hospitals under A1 and A2 category can charge no more than Rs.7500 per day, whereas the day rate has been capped at Rs.5000 for Grade A3 and A4 hospitals.
In the case of treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) hospitals across grades A1-A4 cannot charge more than Rs.15,000 per day. The government has issued strict guidelines that the hospitals must not charge above the stipulated amount.
The state government has been emphasizing that government and private hospitals must come and fight together in this battle against Corona virus to ensure that the health infrastructure can deal with the pandemic in a better manner.
As on Friday, Tamil Nadu has seen a total of 28,694 cases, of which 12,697 are active. The state has been witnessing over 1,000 new cases for the last six days. It needs to be noted that despite the high number of cases (second highest in the country) Tamil Nadu has seen a relatively low number of deaths- 232 as on Friday. The recovery rate in the Southern Indian state has also been quite high, with more than half - 15,762 having recovered.
So far, the state government has been providing free-of-cost treatment to COVID-19 patients in Government hospitals across then state and other specially setup COVID-19 care facilities.
Today’s announcement also means that COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals is made more affordable than earlier. There were several reports in recent weeks about private hospitals fleecing COVID-19 patients(charging over Rs.20,000 per day), and the State Health Minister had assured that the government would step in and cap the treatment cost.
Fixing the rates for treatment is also said to be a little impetus too private hospitals. Earlier, the scenario was such that private hospitals did not encourage many insured patients and were overcharging those who were admitted. But now that costs are capped, the patients also can breathe a sigh of relief, while the hospitals also can earn a little revenue, rather than having a good number of their beds empty.