After drawing
immense flak for its "inability" to control Covid-19 treatment charges at private healthcare facilities, the Telangana government yesterday fixed the maximum prices that could be charged by the designated Covid-19 treatment and testing centres in the state in an effort to make the healthcare services more affordable and accessible to the public.
The government has released orders to this effect which outline clearly the price caps for various treatment facilities.
According to the orders, hospitals in the state cannot charge more than Rs 4,000 per day for patients in isolation facilities. ICU patients too cannot be charged more than Rs 7,500 per day while daily ventilator support charges must be limited to Rs 9,000.
The orders also specify that the cost of each PPE kit should not cross Rs 273 and the cost of high-resolution computed tomograph tests should be limited to Rs 1,995. Besides this, patients cannot be charged more than Rs 300 for digital X-rays.
Whereas D-dimer tests should be done at Rs 800 or less, CRP tests cannot be priced at more than Rs 500. The interleukin-6 and the lactate dehydrogenase tests must also be done at prices less than Rs 1,300 and Rs 140, respectively.
Further, ambulances with basic life support systems can only charge Rs 75 per km and total charges cannot exceed Rs 2,000. The price for ambulance services equipped with advanced life support systems has been capped at Rs 125 per km, with a minimum charge of Rs 3,000.
Telangana, which has been seeing a gradual decrease in reported Covid-19 case figures, recorded
1,175 fresh cases and ten deaths.