The state’s private healthcare regulatory commission on Monday asked two hospitals not to charge a part of the amount it had billed two patients and asked another hospital to return Rs 50,000 to a patient.

The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission asked Ruby General Hospital not to encash a cheque for Rs 1 lakh a patient's family had given them, said retired judge Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the chairperson of the commission.

AMRI Hospitals Dhakuria was asked not to encash cheques for Rs 1.08 lakh it had received from a patient's family. Woodlands Hospital was asked to refund Rs 50,000 to a patient.

Swapan Sur, 60, was admitted to Ruby hospital on August 26 and discharged on September 4. He passed away the next day. The hospital had billed the patient Rs 8.87 lakh.

The family said they had paid the full amount, while the hospital said they offered a discount and the family had to pay Rs 8.53 lakh. “We have asked the hospital to produce the receipt. If we find the family paid Rs 8.87 lakh, the hospital must return the excess amount,” Banerjee said.

“While examining the bill, we found that the hospital charged exorbitant amounts under some heads. For example, Rs 2 lakh was billed as laboratory charges. We compared the rates with that of some other hospitals and laboratories and found Ruby’s charges very high…. We have asked the hospital not to encash a cheque for Rs 1 lakh (received from Sur’s family),” Banerjee said.

An official of the hospital said after the order: “The patient’s family had no complaint of medical negligence…. Regarding the commission’s order, we will take necessary action once we receive a copy of it.”

The commission asked AMRI Hospitals Dhakuria not to encash two cheques amounting to Rs 1.08 lakh that the family of 67-year-old Papia Basu had given it.

“The woman’s family said she was in the hospital for 105 days. She had tested positive for Covid-19, then tested negative and again tested positive. During the hearing the family said the hospital had a moral responsibility for the woman testing positive for Covid for a second time while still being in hospital. But that did not reflect in the bill,” Banerjee said.

Basu is still undergoing treatment at another hospital.

Banerjee said AMRI officials said during Monday’s hearing that they had offered a discount on the bill. “The woman’s treatment was billed Rs 31 lakh. An insurance company paid Rs 25 lakh. Of the remaining Rs 6 lakh, the hospital had offered a discount of Rs 4 lakh,” said Banerjee. “Without going into the question of moral responsibility, we asked the hospital to not encash two cheques amounting to Rs 1.08 lakh.”

An AMRI official later said: “As told by the commission, we will not encash the cheques.”

As for the case against Woodlands, Subrata Basu Mullick, 69, was admitted to the hospital on May 11 with urinary tract infection. He later tested positive for Covid and was asked to shift to another hospital. “The patient was billed Rs 92,000 for his 28-hour stay at the hospital. The patient had complaints against the bill. He was billed Rs 36,000 for investigations and Rs 15,000 for medicines,” said Banerjee.

“During today’s hearing, the hospital’s representative offered to return Rs 50,000 to the complainant. The complainant agreed to the offer and we asked the hospital to return the money,” said Banerjee.

“Although we follow a policy of offering discounts only to the economically weaker section, we offered Mr Basu Mullick, who comes from an economically upper class, a discount of Rs 11,000 against the bill of Rs 93,000 (12 per cent of the total bill) based on his request. However, the honourable commission insisted today to offer Rs 50,000 as a discount. The amount is unreasonable, still we proceeded to honour the order without prejudice,” said an official of the hospital.