SC seeks Centre's response on capping COVID-19 treatment cost in pvt hospitals
New Delhi/UNI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought a detailed response from the Central government on a PIL for capping the cost of treatment of COVID-19 patients in private hospitals.
The petitioner, Avishek Goenka told the Apex court that the private hospitals are charging exorbitant fees from COVID-19 patients making it inaccessible to many infected from the virus.
The PIL also seeks time-bound manner of mediclaim settlement by insurance companies minimum to the tune of government approved rates.
It also seeks direction to extend cashless facilities to all insured patients and other issues.
The Apex Court bench, comprising of Justices M R Shah and V Ramasubramanian, besides led by Justice Bhushan, asked Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta to file Centre's response on putting an upper limit on fees to be charged by private hospitals for treating COVID patients.
A similar matter was also listed before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Friday, where the court had asked the centre whether private or charitable hospitals, which got land free from government, could be asked to treat Covid patients free of cost.
The Centre has already filed an affidavit saying it did not have a statutory power to direct private hospitals to treat these patients free of cost.
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