Stent prices set to come down drastically: Docs

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, January 4

The coronary stent, common known as artificial heart valves, are set to become cheaper with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) having decided to closely monitor the actual price and the cost at which it is sold to patients. The prices are likely to come down within a few months.

This was disclosed by former president, Punjab Medical Council, Dr GS Grewal, after meeting the NPPA chairman, Bhupendra Singh, in New Delhi, yesterday. Grewal led a delegation of the Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH) yesterday.

He said the anomalies in the difference between the cost price and the maximum retail price (MRP) of the coronary stents was likely to be removed and their price to the patient to be reduced drastically. The result could be seen within a month, he said.

The ADEH has demanded streamlining of prices of stents, implants, drugs, aids and other consumables used in medical care. In a consultative meeting with the chairman of the NPPA, the ADEH delegation submitted to him the documentary proof of huge difference in the cost price and the MRP which was the amount being charged from the patients for the stents and other items.

“This amounted to as high as 1,000 per cent in some cases. This is causing tremendous economic pressure on the patients,” Grewal said, adding that the delegation told the NPPA chairman that the cost of drugs and consumables formed about 67 per cent of the total out of pocket expenditure on health.

The delegation empahsised that the coronary stenting was a life-saving procedure and therefore it was important their price be brought under the drug price control order on a par with the medicines as it was a cause of corruption in the medical practice.

The delegation demanded that the cost of the stents be calculated on the basis of cost accountancy i.e cost involved in their production and the profit margin on these should not be more than 20 per cent by the time it reaches the 

end user.

The delegation further demanded that to reduce pressure on the patients, price of each stent should be displayed at the reception counter of the facility putting stents. The patient should be given the choice of the stent with full scientific explanation, it said.

Separate bills of the stent should be given to the patient mentioning details of the make. There should be regular audit of such facilities. The manufacturers should put the details of their product on the website along with its cost. The indigenous production should be encouraged and facilitated and till then import duty and other taxes should be waived, it urged the chairman.

The delegation was represented by Dr G S Grewal, former president, Punjab Medical Council (PMC), Dr Arun Mitra, former chairman, Ethical Committee (PMC) and senior vice-president of the Indian Doctors for Pace and Development (IDPD), Dr Shakti Kumar Prabhaker, neuro-psychiatrist from Ludhiana, Dr Anil Pathak, physician from Delhi and leading activist of the IDPD and Aastha Chaudhary and Madura from the students’ wing of the IDPD now studying at the Safdarjung Hospital.