A team of 70 auditors checked 29,000 bills issued to Covid patients during the deadly first and second waves after several reports of overcharging by private hospitals during the pandemic came into light.
After auditing 29,000 bills issued by 35 private hospitals to Covid-19 patients in the past two years, the BMC has slashed nearly Rs 21 crore from these bills amounting to a whopping Rs 616 crore.
The action is the result of complaints from aggrieved patients as well as the civic body's independent audit after there were several reports of overcharging pandemic cases during the raging days of Covid.
Acting swiftly over the high billing complaints by private hospitals, the BMC appointed two auditors each for a total of 35 private hospitals.
Till February 2022, the BMC registered 462 complaints of overcharging. After the validation process, the auditors' team found 265 of these complaints authentic. Hence, the total billing amount of Rs 19.63 crore was reduced by Rs 2.73 crore.
Other than this, the auditors have also independently audited 28,809 bills of private hospitals. Subsequently, Rs 18.25 crore-deemed to be overcharged expenses were deducted from bills running into Rs 596.47 crore, revealed BMC's data.
"In the third wave, hospitalisations were less. So, we hardly got any complaints of overcharging. But in the first and second wave, till February 2022, Rs 20.98 crore has been reduced," confirmed BMC additional commissioner Suresh Kakani.
