Pune Municipal Corporation Audits Covid Bills of Private Hospitals, Returns Rs. 19 Lakh to Patients & Families

PUNE: After receiving several complaints about overcharging and inflation of bills by private hospitals in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) scrutinized 69 Covid bills between June 24 and June 30 and returned Rs19,51,642 to patients and their families.

Dr. Ashish Bharti, PMC health chief speaking to media said that auditors appointed at 30 private hospitals check pre and post-Covid treatment bills of these hospitals across the city.

"We have 30 auditors so far and every bill is scrutinized by them. The intention is no Covid patient should be overcharged," said Dr. Bharti.

As per PMC officials, ₹4,84,26,733 was returned to Covid patients and their families by June 26, and 1,469 bills were audited.

Rubal Agarwal, the PMC assistant commissioner, said PMC covers all major private hospitals for bill audits.

"As of now, as there are fewer cases, we have only covered big private hospitals. As the cases increase, we may rethink covering more hospitals. If there are any complaints, the patient and their family can reach out to PMC anytime," said Agarwal.

Meanwhile, Health activists from the city have urged the civic body to scrutinize bills of non-Covid patients as well. State health minister Rajesh Tope in May instructed PMC to conduct an audit of all Covid bills.

He stated that earlier only bills above Rs1.5 lakh were audited. However, now, every bill of Covid-19 treatment should be audited as many hospitals break up the bills into multiple parts with small amounts. A separate auditor should be assigned by the administration at each private hospital, said Tope.

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