Hospitals face action over stents

Despite tight norms,   top hospitals in the country are guilty of price-gouging as far as cardiac stents are concerned.  According to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) — a  government agency that regulates the pricing of drugs — cardiac stents  are being sold at around four times the capped price, in some  of the leading hospitals across the country.

This revelation has  huge ramifications for heart patients across the country, many of whom  require cardiac stents for their treatment.

Some of the  hospitals under the NPPA’s scanner for over-charging include the  public-run King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, private-run Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, Post Graduate Institute (PGI) in Chandigarh and   the Max Hospital, Saket in New Delhi, among others.

Documents  exclusively accessed by DNA revealed that two patients (whose identity  cannot be revealed) had registered complaints with the NPPA citing that  civic-run KEM Hospital charged Rs 65,000 and Rs 70,000 for cardiac  stents. In another case, a complainant said that a private hospital had  charged as high as Rs 2,40,000 for two stents.

NPPA officials said  that they were acting on the complaints, “While in one case we have  issued a notice to KEM Hospital seeking explanation, after receiving the  requisite bill from the complainant, in another case, the copy of the  bill is awaited,” said a senior official from NPPA.

However, when  asked to comment, acting dean of KEM Hospital, Dr AK Gvalani said: “I am  not in the know of this. I will have to check if we have been issued a  notice in this regard.”

Cardiac stents are used in the treatment of heart patients. They are devices placed in the coronary arteries to ensure that blood flow to the heart is kept stable. They are thus  critical for any treatment of heart disease and this is why the NPPA has  capped their price.

A  notification was issued by the NPPA on February 13, that ceiling prices  of drug eluting stents (DES) and the bio-resorable vascular scaffolds  (BVS) would be fixed at Rs 29,600 and bare metal stents (BMS) at Rs  7,260. The agency had appealed to patients to register complaints on its  helpline in case of overcharging by hospitals or suppliers.

Following  this, the NPPA has received a number of complaints from patients across  India on overpricing of cardiac stents. Currently, 19 hospitals from  across India are under the scanner for 24 complaints filed with patients  with NPPA regarding overpricing.

In up to 11 cases of complaints  against eight hospitals, including big names like Max Hospital in Saket,  Metro Hospital and QRG Central Hospital and Research Centre in  Faridabad and KEM Hospital in Mumbai, notices have been issued by the  NPPA seeking explanation after the bill copy was submitted to the  regulator by the complainants. All the hospitals under scanner have been  issued notices to verify overpricing complaints and are expected to  reply within a week.

“After due checks, a demand notice to recover  overpricing money will be issued to the hospitals by NPPA,” said  Bhupendra Singh, director, NPPA. If the hospitals are found to be guilty  they will have to pay 15% interest per annum on the overpriced amount  to the NPPA.

Sadly, patients will not get the benefit of this  recovered amount. “The patients will not get anything. The amount will  be deposited in the central government treasury. However, we do instruct  the hospitals to return the overpricing amount to the patient,” said  Singh. He added that over the last year, NPPA has recovered up to Rs  1,000 crores in cases of overpricing of drugs from manufacturers,  retailers, chemists, nursing homes and hospitals.

Nineteen public  and private hospitals under scrutiny are in New Delhi, Faridabad,  Bangalore, Bareilly, Chandigarh, Rohtak, Dehradun, Sonipat, Nasik,  Ambala, Meerut, Haryana, Allahabad, Mysore, Jalandhar, Thrissur and  Mumbai.

“Each day we have received close to 60-70 phone calls but  these are more of those to get clarity on new rules. We collated 24  complaints over the past two weeks,” said a senior NPPA official.

NPPA  is also scrutinising the aforesaid hospitals as they have not mentioned  the name of the company, brand and specifications on bill copies while  over pricing and forwarding the bills to the patients. With regards to a  notification issued on March 2, to this effect which makes all this  mandatory, Kalyan Nag, Advisor (Cost), NPPA said, “Non-compliance to  these instructions will be treated as deliberate distortion of evidence.  Such cases may be taken up for prosecution.”

DNA checked with  some of the leading hospitals in the country asking them if they were  keeping the patient informed about the NPPA’s guidelines. Responding to  DNA’s query, Dr JK Jadwani, cardiologist at Lilavati Hospital said,  “Largely each and every patient is aware of the government-declared  prices. They come up to us and ask if stents will be given at the same  price as has been stipulated in the NPPA notification. It is impossible  that they are being overpriced.”

However, when asked if Lilavati  Hospital has prominently displayed a list of revised pricing in its  premises as mandated by the NPPA, for example, in the reception area,  near the Operation Theatres or Outpatient Department, Dr Jadwani said,  “Of that I do not know. I cannot go to every nook and corner of the  hospital to verify.”

Hospitals under NPPA’s scanner  

1. Max Hospital, Saket, New Delhi
2. Metro Hospital, Faridabad
3. Saint Philomenas Hospital, Bangalore
4. Ram Murti Hospital, Bareilly
5. Post Graduate Institute, Chandigarh
6. Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai
7. King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai
8. Six Sigma Medical and Research Centre, Nasik
9. Healing Touch Hospital, Ambala
10. Agarwal Nursing Home, Haryana
11. Anand Hospital, Meerut
12. Global Hospital, Jalandhar
13. QRG Central Hospital and Research Centre, Faridabad
14. Oxygen Hospital, Rohtak
15. Bharat Heart Institute, Dehradun
16. Nidan Hospital, Sonipat
17. Cauvery Hospital, Mysore
18. Allahabad Heart Centre, Allahabad
19. Sun Medical and Research Centre, Thrissur

In case a hospital is overcharging for stents you can complain to NPPA on -  1800111255