Plaints related to inflated bills continue to pour in

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, June 19

With the district administration cracking down on private hospitals over complaints of excess charging for Covid-19 treatment, complaints continue to pour in before the eight-member committee looking into the issue.

The panel examines the evidence provided by the complainants to corroborate their claims before taking action on case-to-case basis.

Even though Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh confirmed the administration had received more complaints of overcharging, he didn’t share the exact number.

“We will reveal it to the media once we examine them,” the DC said in response to a query by the Chandigarh Tribune.

BB Singhal, member of the Haryana State Pharmacy Council and the committee examining the grievances, said the complaints related to excess billing by private hospitals were being received at different levels.

“Some file the complaint to Haryana Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, while others approach the office of the Deputy Commissioner and the Civil Surgeon. As per the protocol, these complaints are forwarded to the committee for examination before any action is taken,” Singhal informed.

Recently, the DC had appealed the Covid patients and their family members to lodge complaints with the district administration in case of overcharging by private hospitals for Covid treatment, assuring them of redressal on a priority basis.

The next meeting of the committee will now held on Monday.

Wary of the action by the administration, private hospitals have already agreed to pay back the excess amount in a time-bound manner.

So far, allegations of overcharging have been made against Paras Hospital, Alchemist Hospital and Wings Hospital.

The district administration had also asked the hospitals to conduct a self-audit of all Covid related bills and submit the report to the committee for cross checking.

Formation of panel

After receiving several complaints of overcharging, Haryana Speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta had recommended the formation of a panel to look into the matter, following which a district-level eight-member committee, led by ADC Mohammad Imran Raza, was constituted.

Gupta had also written to Health Minister Anil Vij, requesting for an audit of bills issued by the private hospitals.

In June last year, the Haryana Government had capped the daily package rate for Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals between Rs 8,000 and Rs 18,000.