The Karnataka government suggested that on the recommendation of the expert committee to fix the rates of each class of treatment and different rates may be fixed for different class of private medical establishment. File photo: MintThe Karnataka government on Tuesday tabled a bill to amend certain provisions of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act 2007 which empowers the state government to fix the rates or charges to be collected by private hospitals for each class of treatment, exceeding which would attract a maximum penalty of up to Rs5 lakh. The tabling of the bill (Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (amendment) Bill 2017) comes at a time when health care charges in private medical establishments continue to rise, especially for speciality treatments, making them unaffordable for people from the lower economic classes. “Every private medical establishment shall provide proper estimates for treatments not covered in fixed rates and charges to the patient or attendant of the patient during initiation or due course of treatment and final bill shall not exceed estimates,” the bill stated. The state government suggested that on the recommendation of the expert committee to fix the rates of each class of treatment and different rates may be fixed for different class of private medical establishment.

Source: Mint June 13, 2017 15:45 UTC