Surviving The Pandemic
On July 13, in a rare expression of solidarity, representatives of half-a-dozen Indian private healthcare industry associations, at least a dozen heads of leading private hospitals and the Health Services Committee of industry body Ficci announced a virtual press conference. It got postponed at the last minute to July 15, only to get cancelled again, as the central topic of discussion was “sub judice.” The topic, which representatives of top ranking private hospitals such as Apollo, Fortis, Hinduja, DM Healthcare and Columbia Asia wanted to discuss, was challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The issue most central to this — price caps on Covid tests and treatments by central agencies, state governments and the General Insurance Council — is also being considered by courts.
Though the event got postponed, there is no relief in sight for private healthcare providers, even as the number of Covid-19 patients in India races past the 10 lakh mark. And ‘unsustainable price caps’ is just one of their problems.
“Across India, different states and cities are in various stages of lockdown. If we talk of price caps, prices are different in different states and that is a challenge,” says
