Two crore people in India develop knee problems that may require an implant. However, only around one lakh patients undergo implants while the rest cannot afford the expensive treatment.
In a bid to tighten the noose around the healthcare providers who sell the knee implant equipment at exorbitantly high rates, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked the sellers to upload the prices of the implants on their websites. NPPA has issued the order for ensuring that the sellers comply with the price fixation. The authority has also fixed the price of the implants on August 16.
"All manufacturers, importers, distributors, stockists, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics must display on 'home page' of their website, the MRP or the price of the knee implant system at which they are charging or billing the patients, along with the brand name, specifications, and names of the manufacturing and marketing company, within three working days from issuing this office memorandum," stated Kalyan Nag, Adviser, NPPA in the order.
NPPA has provided more clarity regarding price control, saying that the prices capped are inclusive of the bone-cement component and the cost of instruments that could be reused and supplied free by manufacturers to distributors and hospitals.
Two crore people in India develop knee problems that may require an implant. However, only around one lakh patients undergo implants while the rest cannot afford the expensive treatment.
NPPA had studied that a knee implant costs a patient six times more than the minimum price at which an importer stocks it from manufacturing firms, shockingly, as high as over four lakh rupees. In case the importing price for the manufacturer is higher than the ceiling price, the manufacturers can add a margin of not more than 30%.
For primary knee replacement system, the profit margin has been fixed at 4% to 8% for hospitals, nursing homes and clinics and 12% to 16% for distributors and stockists.
Depending on the type of the transplant, the government regulatory agency has fixed the ceiling prices of the implant between Rs 54,720 and Rs 1,13,950.
A standard knee implant will not cost more than Rs 54,720 now. Earlier, it used to cost around Rs 1,58,324.
Special metal implants like that of titanium and oxidized zirconium — which earlier used to cost Rs 2,49,251 — will come down by 69% to Rs 76,600.
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