The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that government empaneled hospitals will not be allowed to lure patients with attractive treatment packages at the outset, only to later inflate the final bill by separately charging for procedures essential to the treatment itself. Justice Harpreet Singh Brar has also prescribed that the cost of treatment be clearly explained to the patient or their family in simple and understandable language.
Haryana Director-General, Health Services, has also been directed to verify the package rates of all empaneled hospitals, either himself or through the Civil Surgeon concerned. “In case any of the empaneled hospitals is found to be violating the policy, appropriate corrective measures shall be taken, including cancellation of their license,” Justice Brar ruled.
In his detailed order, Justice Brar asserted: “The Director-General shall further ensure that the cost of treatment is explained to the patient or their next of kin in a language they are familiar with, instead of merely obtaining signatures on cyclostyled proforma. The practice of artificially lowering package rates to attract patients initially, only to later charge separately for essential procedures, shall not be permitted."
Justice Brar also set three-month deadline for the completion of the entire exercise and filing of a compliance report before the Court. Before parting with the order, the Bench asserted: “The sphere of medicine and medical aid is a noble sphere. The State, in framing and implementing its policies, must reflect that nobility. It cannot be allowed to give primacy to the commercial angle, for a policy driven by commerce over compassion ceases to be a welfare policy."
The assertion came as Justice Brar made it clear that medical bills for a procedure undertaken to preserve a patient’s life, which satisfied “the test of essentiality and emergency”, was entitled to reimbursement in terms of a Supreme Court judgment. The State could not take the plea had the patient had not undergone conventional procedure and could not be reimbursed accordingly.
