For many Indian patients, a hospital visit is as stressful for the wallet as it is for health. Bills for tests never done. Referrals to doctors with unclear roles. Surgeries performed by juniors while fees are charged for senior surgeons have become routine.
This holds especially for corporate hospitals in India that have developed a dark underbelly. Opaque billing and questionable practices are rapidly becoming common there.
Patients often face charges for unnecessary tests, and ambiguous referrals. Consultant doctors are increasingly replaced by salaried professionals who meet targets for admissions, tests, and procedures. Hospitals also rent equipment to add a profit margin to patient bills.
A report highlights the plight of a photographer who experienced this after being admitted for acute pancreatitis in East Delhi.
He was discharged after three days but found a urine test on his bill, which he had never given. Hospital staff initially insisted the test was essential. After several calls, the charge was reversed. Nikhil was fortunate, as longer hospital stays generate invoices that are too long to check in detail.
Referrals in corporate hospitals also raise concerns. Hospital insiders say there is often an unsaid quid pro quo, with doctors referring patients to one another. Once given, referrals cannot be formally retracted and rely on the doctor’s ethics or vigilant patient attendants.
The report mentions that in July 2024, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission ruled on a case where a vegetative patient stayed in a private hospital for 22 days and was billed in excess of Rs 9 lakhs.
This included nearly Rs 20,000 for an anaesthesia specialist who had no recorded notes in the patient file. The commission ruled that a doctor cannot charge for visits that are not documented. The patient was also billed for 52 litres of mineral water. The hospital’s claim that it was used to dilute medicine was dismissed, as medicines are diluted with sterile water, not mineral water.
The operating theatre is another area of opacity. Patients are unconscious and cannot verify procedures or additional charges. Rakesh (name changed), a 53-year-old businessman from Faridabad, faced this when his wife underwent gallbladder surgery in Delhi.
The pre-surgery estimate was just over Rs 2 lakh. After the surgery, the bill was nearly Rs 4 lakh.
His cardiologist found that cholecystectomy and adhesiolysis were billed as separate surgeries, including OT charges and surgeon fees. Only one surgery had been performed, and the charges were later reversed.
Adding extra procedures to bills is a common practice. It increases potential earnings from surgeries such as adenoidectomy and hysterectomy. Adhesiolysis, the report says, is often used for this purpose.
With no clear controls and a clear absence of strong regulatory guidelines, patients in India continue to face these challenges, navigating opaque hospital processes and inflated bills.
Also Read: Inside India’s Largest CCTV Breach: Maternity Hospital Videos Sold On Telegram https://www.vibesofindia.com/inside-indias-largest-cctv-breach-maternity-hospital-videos-sold-on-telegram/
