Refund excess amount, Telangana High Court tells Covid hospitals

Hyderabad: In a significant judgement, the High Court of Telangana on Wednesday directed the State Government to refund the excess amount collected by the private and corporate hospitals while treating Covid-19 patients.

The court asked the government to start the exercise with the hospitals whose permission to treat Covid patients has already been cancelled.

The Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Hima Kohli pulled up state Director for Health G Srinivasa Rao for not taking any steps towards returning the exorbitant amount collected by the corporate hospitals from the Covid patients during the pandemic time.

The Court observed that the government had failed to present action taken report on the notices served by the government to the erring hospitals. The Health officials only cancelled the licences of 21 hospitals for exploiting the patients and left the victims in the lurch who paid lakhs of rupees for treatment. The court also questioned the government for not revising the medical charges collected from the patients in the second wave of pandemic and asked them to issue a fresh GO immediately. It also asked the Health department to hold a full-fledged inquiry into the issue of excess billing.

Top officials of the Health department told The Hans India that the court order to return the excess treatment fee to the patients from hospitals would be discussed in detail with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Some hospitals already approached the High court challenging the notices served on them and some against the cancellation of licences. 

All these issues should be sorted out before taking a decision on the payment of compensation.

Out of 64 hospitals, which have received notices, a few of them submitted explanations and the officials were verifying the ground reality. After the finalisation of the fact-finding report, action would be initiated which includes collecting compensation amount from the managements. "The Government will act according to the court orders and ensure relief to the patients," State Health Director G Srinivas Rao said.