68% report high treatment costs, 56% flag costly ICU, room charges in private hospitals: Survey
Around 56% of respondents reported ‘excessively high charges of facilities like ICU and/or room’, while 51% said they were charged ‘excessively high prices of medicines and consumables.’
A recent survey conducted by LocalCircles revealed that a majority of families who utilized private hospital services in the past three years faced significant issues with bill expenses. The survey collected 23,084 responses from citizens across 306 districts.
According to the results, 68% of respondents highlighted "excessively high prices of treatment" as a major concern, while 63% reported "excessively high prices of diagnostic tests". Around 56% of participants noted "excessively high charges for facilities like ICU and/or room". Additionally, 51% cited "excessively high prices of medicines and consumables".
Moreover, 49% of the surveyed individuals mentioned "unnecessary doctor consultation charges" on their bills, and 43% reported "excessively high doctor consultation charges". The survey also found that 40% of respondents encountered "overbilling of the quantity of medicines and consumables used," with another equal proportion facing "other unexpected or unknown charges."
Only 14% of the respondents claimed they had not experienced any problems with private hospital bills. These findings follow a report by the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, which expressed concerns over the affordability of private healthcare. The committee recommended standardized pricing, mandatory price transparency, and a unified grievance redressal mechanism to address excessive billing and insurance claim disputes.
Written by urgent.news from Live Mint's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
