Private hospital room cost must not exceed 3-star hotel room tariff in cities: Parl panel

A parliamentary committee in India has advised that the cost of private hospital rooms in metropolitan cities should not surpass the average price of a three-star hotel room in the surrounding area. This recommendation is part of efforts to make healthcare more affordable and reduce out-of-pocket expenses. The 176th Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, titled "Affordability and Accessibility of Healthcare Facilities in Public and Private Sector," suggests that private hospital room charges, especially in big cities, require urgent rationalization.

On August 7, the panel presented this report to both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. They suggested that the three-star hotel tariff benchmark should become mandatory for all private hospitals in large metropolitan areas. This proposal includes adding costs for resident doctors, nursing services, disposable items, meals, and laundry to the basic room tariff.

The committee also urged the government to require all tertiary care hospitals to provide patients with a detailed, legally binding estimate of costs before initiating any complex or lengthy medical procedures. Additionally, hospitals are advised to employ dedicated financial navigators to assist patients and their families in understanding treatment expenses, available charitable aid, and health coverage limits.

The report highlights the financial strain on households when accessing private healthcare, with an average out-of-pocket expenditure of ₹34,064 per hospitalization episode. It also points out medical inflation ranging from 10-13 percent and varying billing practices based on room categories. The committee calls for eliminating inflation linked to room rentals for standard procedures across private hospitals and implementing standardized treatment guidelines to prevent arbitrary price fluctuations.

They also propose establishing a national or state healthcare corpus fund to subsidize or fully cover high-cost therapies for eligible patients, particularly for expensive cancer and rare-disease treatments like immunotherapy, genomic, and targeted therapies. Psychological counseling, emotional support, and patient support groups are suggested as mandatory, zero-cost components of approved treatment protocols.

For medicines and medical devices, the committee recommends mandatory AMRIT and Jan Aushadhi pharmacies within all Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY empanelled hospitals, along with transparent procurement practices and capped mark-ups on life-saving consumables and devices. The panel also advocates for a Zero-Stockout Policy in government hospitals, supported by digital inventory systems, to ensure consistent availability of essential supplies and surgical implants.

Regarding health insurance, they suggest universal enrollment of private hospitals and healthcare providers in the National Health Claims Exchange and the expedited deployment of the Public Insurance Registry to enhance transparency, minimize claim disputes, and curb fraudulent billing. The committee emphasizes the need to expand healthcare infrastructure beyond urban centers, recommending mobile diagnostic units, hub-and-spoke telehealth services across districts, and leveraging the postal network for transporting diagnostic samples and essential medicines to remote areas.

Currently, India has approximately 1.3 hospital beds per 1,000 population, falling short of the WHO's recommended 3.5, with the public sector providing only 0.79 beds. The report also suggests strengthening rural and Tier 2 and 3 healthcare infrastructure, encouraging public-private partnership clinics for middle-income populations, and promoting domestic production of medical devices to reduce import reliance and treatment costs.