Know your costs before you go under the knife, courtesy hospitals’ charts

In the wake of 43 hospitals in the city opting to display their pricing charts for various procedures online, the delivery of healthcare is slated to see a marked improvement with an opportunity for patients to compare rates for procedures across hospitals that are either National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) compliant or certified. 

BG Menon, MD, ACME Consulting, who has spearheaded this exercise, says “of the 80 NABH accredited hospitals in the city, 43 have chosen to enter the transparent process of displaying their procedure pricing online. ‘Quality Health’ is an initiative to bring credibility and faith back to the healthcare sector.” 

He points to the efforts being made to bridge the trust deficit between patients and healthcare providers and adds that for now, there are over 400 NABH hospitals across the country and the backlog of joining the quality bandwagon has been increasing. 

Positioning Acme as an evangelist of sorts in growing the concept of healthcare quality in India, Menon says, the initiative to show prices upfront began about 2.5 months ago, during which six hospitals (in the 100-150 beds category) have been forced to re-jig their prices to stay competitive. These hospitals cut costs by 10 

to 15 per cent. 

Even laboratories that have been fleecing the customers have slashed their prices with MRI scans for Rs 8,000 being halved by a reputable scan player in the city. A CT that was charged at Rs 3,500 is now being offered at Rs 2000. 

The service providers are on a marketing overdrive, trying to “woo” clients by discounting several healthcare packages by 50 to 75 per cent. Asked about this, Menon responds saying “enormous work has gone into convincing the hospitals to be transparent with their pricing strategies. Soon, standardised packages for Master health check-ups will be available that will see a 25 to 30 per cent price correction among the healthcare providers.” 

In a month’s time, labs and scan facilities too are expected to join the growing list of those opting for transparent pricing display. Market realities are making standalone labs compete with one other as the current scenario is one of encouraging patients to undergo scans without proper prescriptions. 

As per the NABH guidelines, a procedure must cost the same across patients and so, such an initiative is bound to bring parity among healthcare players. The number of procedures that the hospitals are willing to display too have risen, he says. Tamil Nadu has been a clear front-runner on quality parameters. 

To be fully NABH-compliant, a hospital with 100 to 200 beds would incur Rs 25 lakh as the primary cost is towards infrastructure upgradation. For entry-level hospitals, the compliance process would take about seven months.