Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has said that private hospitals and diagnostic centers have taken undue advantage of the COVID-19 situation and they are overcharging patients even for basic health services.
 
Speaking at an event organized by the Western Region of industry body CII on Tuesday, Tope said, there have been instances of these private facilities charging hefty sums from people for medical services.

The Minister said the State Government has taken various measures to cap prices of health care services so that people can afford them. Mr. Tope admitted that plasma therapy has not been much success in treating COVID-19 patients.

He said, even though plasma therapy has not been very successful still an amount of Rs. 10,000 to Rs.12,000 is being charged for the same. That is why, a cap of Rs. 5,500 has been put in place for the treatment.
 
He said that charges on testing have also been capped but the volume is so huge that hospitals and laboratories can still make money by testing more and more people.
 
Mr. Tope also said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown caused job losses and affected mental health of people and how to address mental health issues is another challenge.

Meanwhile, In Madhya Pradesh, the state government has made it mandatory for all nursing homes and private hospitals to display the prescribed rates of treatment of COVID-19 at their reception counter.

Prescribed rates of treatment will also have to be provided to the patient and the family of the patients.
 
This order has been issued by the Health Department in compliance with the order of the High Court.
 
AIR correspondent reports, the state government has also clarified that the rates of Corona treatment should not exceed more than 40 percent of the rates fixed on February 29 this year.
 

The state health Commissioner has instructed the Chief Medical and Health Officers of all the districts to ensure that the rates of treatment prescribed for COVID-19 is displayed at the reception counter of all nursing homes and private hospitals.

 
Meanwhile, the numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state climbed up to around 1.26 lakh after 1877 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours.
 
According to the state health bulletin, 2433 coronavirus patients were discharged from the hospitals on Tuesday taking the number of recovered cases in the state to 1 lakh marks.
 
There are now 21,317 active cases in Madhya Pradesh.