Free treatment for H1N1: Pvt hospitals may not comply

 
A City-based hospital, which charges Rs 1,500 for the swab collection, said that if the Government started imposing such rules on the private hospitals, there would be resistance. “Private hospitals have come forward on their own and are doing a favour, as Government hospitals are unable to take the load. In fact, since the time we have begun to take H1N1 patients, there has been a negative impact in our revenues. People fear that if they come to our hospital, they will get infected,” a doctor from the hospital said.

“It is all very well to speak of reimbursement. But with a bureaucratic process, it will be very hard to implement or get the cost reimbursed,” he added.

Meanwhile, State Health officials said guidelines or directives regarding reimbursement of treatment incurred by private hospitals will be announced on Wednesday.  

Col Dayanand, Medical Director of Sagar Hospital, said the Hospital will charge patients for swab collection till further notification from the Government. “Initially, RGICD gave swab collection kits to some private hospitals, so these hospitals did not charge the patients.
However, when we went, these kits were not available. We bought them from the market and are charging around Rs 150 to Rs 200 for swab collection,” he said.

Dayanand added that it was unclear whether the reimbursement would be for suspected patients, positive cases, or those positive cases admitted to the hospital.

Even Lakeside Hospital said it would carry on with its current practices till it receives guidelines from the government.