Govt mulling formulating standard treatment for various diseases

The Union health ministry is mulling formulating a standardised treatment protocol for various diseases to tide over the problems created due to refusal of insurance companies to comply with cashless insurance schemes.

Union health secretary Sujatha Rao today chaired a meeting of medical experts and representatives of leading private hospitals like Apollo and Fortis.

The experts identified 21 major diseases where a treatment protocol can be made and formed a committee to look into all other aspects, health ministry sources said.

The committee, which has six members, will carry out studies and talk to all stakeholders, after which they will meet again next week to take stock of the situation.

Among the experts who attended the meeting included Medical Council of India members Gautam Sen and Ranjit Roy Chowdhary, FICCI representative Narottam Puri and Dr Srinath Reddy of AIIMS.

According to the sources, the members at the meeting opined that in some cases the treatment is technology-driven and proper treatment protocol should be followed.

In a major decision, insurance companies had last month withdrawn cashless facilities from most private hospitals accusing them of overcharging.