Times of India
21 January 2011
By Umesh Isalkar
Pune, India

30% Increase
Medical services in all 14 government hospitals in the state will cost 30 per cent from February 1.
"Rates of all medical services – right from preparing case papers to conducting surgeries – have been increased by 30 per cent," said Vasudev Tayde, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER). "A separate committee has been working on the rate revision of patient care at state governmentrun hospitals. The charges have been increased as the overall cost of hospital and medical care management has also gone up in the last few years."

A state government resolution in this regard has been issued. The last rate revision of patient care was in 2000. "The state government had revised its rates in 2007 but the move was soon cancelled. The present revision is taking place after 10 years," said B G Kulkarni, rector of B J Medical College and Sassoon Hospital.

Making a case paper will now cost Rs 10 as against the present Rs 5. Diagnostic services like CT scans will cost Rs 300 as against the present Rs 250, while a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) will cost Rs 1,800, up by Rs 400. All surgeries, which presently cost anything between Rs 60 and Rs 200, will now cost between Rs 100 and Rs 500. Cancer-related surgeries will now cost Rs 1,000.

The procedure for carrying out high-end surgeries at government hospitals has also been revised. A medical officer at Sassoon Hospital said, "For a sophisticated joint replacement surgery, a patient used to buy an implant from outside and get it fitted at the government hospital at a minimum cost of Rs 200. Now, implants will be made available at the government hospital itself. A joint replacement surgery will now cost around Rs 75,000. A similar surgery in a private hospital costs between Rs 90,000 (using an indigenous implant) and Rs 1.40 lakh (using an imported implant)."

The revised patient care rates, however, do not apply to people falling in the below poverty line (BPL) category, senior citizens, patients with infections and diseases that are categorised under national programmes, such as TB, cataract, outbreaks of infectious diseases and all vector-borne diseases like malaria.

"These diseases have always been treated free of cost at government hospitals. Besides, blood and blood components will also not come under the revised rates. Medico-legal cases like accidents will continue to be treated for free," said Pandurang Pawar, superintendent of Sassoon Hospital.

Charges taken for services provided at government hospitals are deposited in a separate account called Personal Ledger Account (PAL). This money is used for procuring emergency medicine and rendering emergency medical services.