Mumbai: In an embarrassment for the city’s renowned Asian Heart Hospital, a consumer court ordered it to pay Rs 1.30 lakh for charging “extra” fees to a patient. The court also upheld the contention that hospitals can calculate the extra amount (to be charged) in critical cases.
A division bench of Shubhda Tulankar, president and Shraddha Jalnapurkar, member, held that the BKC-based hospital did not charge the extra fees deliberately and in fact it was due to confusion.
The bench was seized with a plea filed by Vinay Bhasin, whose father underwent an angiography at the hospital in 2015. The reports indicated blockages in arteries and thus Bhasin’s father was advised to undergo a coronary arteries bypass graph (CABG) surgery.
According to Bhasin, the hospital informed him that for an angiography, he would have to pay Rs 25,100 and further to undergo the CABG surgery, he would have to shell out a total of Rs 6,79,100.
As instructed, the amounts were arranged. However, later Bhasin was asked to pay Rs 6,93,000, and the amount was accordingly paid.
Subsequently, when the CABG surgery was underway, Bhasin was asked to pay an additional Rs 1.50 lakh as his father was categorised as a “high risk patient.” When asked the reason for this additional fees, the hospital told him that it would be mentioned in the final bill.
Soon after the surgery, the final bill was given to Bhasin which totalled to Rs 9.67 lakh. He was shocked to see the amount and refused to pay the same. But he was compelled to make the payments to get his father discharged.
He later wrote several letters to the hospital demanding an explanation for over-charging, wherein the hospital’s management replied that in critical cases, calculating extra fees, to be charged, was a normal course.
The hospital management further claimed that there was some “confusion” between the staff and Bhasin, who was not informed of the charges.
In its defense, the hospital placed on record the brochure that detailed prices for a CABG surgery and the additional charges of the patient, as it is a high-risk one.
Having considered the contentions, the court held that the hospital had specified the additional charges for a high-risk patient, but while calculating the amount, it charged an additional Rs 63,000.
“The complainant had perused the brochure that specified the fees for patients of all categories. He was charged an additional Rs 63,000, but this was not a deliberate move,” the court said.
“As accepted by the hospital, the overcharging has been because of some confusion between Bhasin and the staff. Thus, we order the hospital to pay Rs 63,000 back along with Rs 50,000 towards mental agony. The hospital to further pay Rs 20,000 towards litigation costs, thus a total amount of Rs 1.33 lakh,” the bench ruled.
