Leaving no room for confusion, the government said hospitals can't charge any margin from manufacturers and retailers for stents. National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) sources told TOI that no margin was envisaged for hospitals in pricing of stents as hospitals are not retailers of the particular product. Another chain of hospitals has cleared only four mid-range stents for its "cashwalk-inTPA" patients and three India-make stents for government panel patients. It can ask public hospitals to fix their cost price for stents, not private ones." It has long been the practice for hospitals to stock stents of various sizes of about three or four companies.

Source: Times of India February 19, 2017 00:45 UTC