Karnal administration caps rates of Covid-related tests at private hospitals, labs

Tribune News Servoce

Advertisement

Karnal, May 20

Taking note of the complaints of overcharging for tests related to Covid diagnosis and treatment, the District Magistrate (DM) capped the prices for private laboratories and hospitals in the district.

“It has come to my notice that private labs/hospitals are charging high prices from residents for conducting the tests related to Covid, which is an additional financial burden on the patients and their family members. Therefore, we have fixed the rates of testing and scans,” said Nishant Kumar Yadav, DM.

About the rates, Yadav said Rs 1,827 would be charged for the CB-NAAT testing at the non-NABI/non-NABH hospitals/labs, while for Truenat testing, a patient has to pay Rs 1,250+taxes at the NABI/NABH facilities and Rs 1,000+taxes at the non-NABI/NABH ones.

He said a patient would have to pay Rs 1,850 for the procalcitonin test at both types of facilities. For CRP, a patient has to pay Rs 350and Rs 250 at the NABI/NABH and NABI/NABH hospitals/labs, respectively, while for serium ferritin, Rs 465 and Rs 450 will be charged, respectively, he added.

D-dimer test will be done at Rs 890 at the NABI/NABH facilities, while Rs 850 at non-NABI/NABH ones. IL-6 test will cost Rs 2,200 at both the categories of hospitals and labs, while for X-Ray will cost Rs 300.

For LFT-KFT, Rs 1,230 would be charged at the NABI/NABH category, while Rs 700 at the non-NABI/NABH facility, while Rs 360 and Rs 300 would be charged for LDH, respectively, Yadav added.

For IgG besed Elisa antibody test, the rate would be Rs 250 and of total Covid IgG+IgM antibody by Elisa, the rate would be Rs 450 in both the institutions, he said, adding that for antibody by CLIA, Rs 800 and Rs 700 would be charged respectively, and Rs 900 and Rs 800 would be charged, respectively, for Covid IgG spike protein by CLIA. He warned theprivate labs and hospitals against overcharging, otherwise action would be initiated.

New prices fixed for facilities

RTPCR TEST: Rs 450 will be charged for the sample collected at the centre, while Rs 650 for outside the centre from both the NABI/NABH and non-NABI/NABH hospitals & labs

RAPID ANTIGEN TEST: Rs 500 will be charged from both the categories of the hospitals and laboratories

PLAIN CT SCAN: The rate will be Rs1,950 for both the categories of hospitals/labs. HRCT chest scan will cost Rs 2,440