Maharashtra FDA Commissioner made recommendation to NPPA on pricing gap of hospital consumables
A patient admitted for care has no way of knowing whether the price on a medical consumable reflects its actual cost or a markup fixed long before it ever reached the ward, said Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Munde
Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Tukaram Munde has called for guidelines on the acceptable price difference between the cost of hospital consumables at the point of procurement and the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) declared by manufacturers and distributors. Munde emphasized that the pricing gap is a fundamental public health concern, as patients often have no insight into the true cost of medical consumables or any markups that may have been applied.
In a survey conducted in Maharashtra, it was revealed that the MRP for an IV infusion set was 2,841% higher than its trade price, while a syringe carried an MRP nearly nine times its procurement cost. The commissioner argued that the high markup is due to fixed pricing determined upstream by manufacturers and distributors, disconnected from the trade price by a wide, unexplained margin.
Most medical devices and consumables are not covered under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, leaving the pricing and associated information largely unmonitored.
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Also reported by 1 other outlet
- Centre seeks NPPA report on high markups in hospital consumables health.economictimes.indiatimes.com
