There’s no further explanation. At a time of distress relatives opt for the most expensive under the misguided notion “the costlier the better”.
Let’s understand in the first place that the cost of medical devices like stents and pacemakers is enough to give anyone a heartache – which patients with precarious hearts and financial problems can hardly tolerate. Few realize that, to add to their woes, they are made to pay double or triple the prices to these hospitals which force them to buy devices at whatever price they quote.
Many conscious doctors themselves have now probed deeply into this malaise. They have been able to verify that the margins on devices at the hospitals – ranging from implants, stents and pacemakers to artificial joints, titanium plates for fractures and artificial valves – could add to as much as 30% of hospital profits. Regrettably, it is the patient who is made to pay for these handsome margins.
Inquiries with pharma companies which supply medical devices to the hospitals have revealed that the stents being charged at Rs. 95,000 are available directly with the pharma company for Rs 30,000, a mark-up of almost 300%. Sadly, the same principle is used also by hospitals in buying cheap bulk medicines and selling later at a much higher price to the patient. In fact devices, medicines and diagnostics account for as much as 70% of a hospital’s profit. This is a pathetic scenario and poor patients literally struggle to make both ends meet.
Right-thinking doctors vouch that something needs to be done and very urgently too. A few suggestions have been propounded, 1) Make MRP mandatory, 2) Set up a price regulatory authority, 2) Allow patients to buy their requirements from the original suppliers.
In a world where costs of medical care keep escalating it is necessary that some controls are put in place.
