The state clinical establishment regulatory commission on Friday thrashed out a settlement between a Covid victim’s family and a private hospital by asking the family to pay Rs 1.2 lakh of the Rs 3.92 lakh charged by the hospital in a supplementary bill, the panel chairperson said.

The family has also been given the option to pay the Rs 1.2 lakh in 24 monthly installments of Rs 5,000 each.

An 84-year-old woman who had tested positive for Covid-19 died in July after spending two weeks in a critical condition at Ruby General Hospital. The woman’s family had paid Rs 2.25 lakh during admission, the commission said. After she passed away, the hospital handed the family an additional bill of Rs 3.92 lakh, which the family was unable to pay. The total bill came to Rs 5.12 lakh.

The family approached the commission saying officials of the hospital had called them up and “threatened” them to clear the bill, retired judge Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the chairperson of the commission, said at a news conference.

“Besides the initial payment of Rs 2.25 lakh, the family had also spent Rs 76,000 to buy the medicines the hospital had sought from time to time,” Banerjee said.

An official of Ruby General Hospital denied that anyone from the hospital had threatened the family to pay up. “No one from the hospital had called up the family even once after the patient had passed away,” the official said.

Banerjee said that during Friday’s hearing, the family and the hospital asked the commission to decide on the matter. “The family said they were from a lower middle-class background and did not have the means to pay the full amount demanded by the hospital. But they also said they wanted to pay the amount justly demanded by the hospital. The hospital, too, urged the commission to decide on the matter,” he said.

The commission then asked the family to pay Rs 1.2 lakh. “Both parties agreed to the decision,” the chairperson said.

The official of Ruby General Hospital Metro spoke to said they would be in a position to comment on the case after receiving a copy of the commission’s order.

The commission on Friday also took suo motu cognisance of a report in a newspaper that named six hospitals that were not displaying the rates for Covid-19 treatment. The commission had earlier issued an advisory asking all private hospitals to display the rates on their campuses.

“We have asked the hospitals to file an affidavit,” said Banerjee.