Mandatory for hospitals to issue detailed bills to patients, separately disclosing cost of coronary stents: Govt
14 March, New Delhi
National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA), under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, has directed hospitals to issue detailed bills to the patients, specifically and separately mentioning the cost of the coronary stents, along with the brand name of the manufacturer and importer, batch number and other details, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Mansukh L Mandaviya, in a written reply said any non-compliance there of will be treated as deliberate distortion of evidence along with charges of overpricing inviting prosecution under the Essential Commodities Act.
The Minister said the Government, through NPPA, is closely monitoring the situation and has alerted the state governments and State Drugs Controllers to monitor the availability of stents. Industry has also been apprised that all manufactures and importers are under legal obligation to maintain smooth production and supply of coronary stents of all brands which were available in the country before price cap, he added.
All state governments and State Drug Controllers have been advised to exercise the power of entry, search and seizure as per Para 30 of Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013 if manufacturers, importers or distributors try to create artificial shortage of stents. The Government has had two rounds of discussions with the stent companies, which in turn have promised required level of availability.
Mandaviya informed that aggrieved persons may send verifiable information and complaints regarding this on NPPA Help Line Number 1800111255 or through online complaint mechanism Pharma Jan Samadhan. NPPA notified the ceiling price of coronary stents on February 13 at Rs 7,260 for Bare Metal Stent (BMS) and Rs 29,600 for Drug Eluting Stents (DES), including metallic DES and Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS)/ Biodegradable Stents.
The average MRP before this notification was Rs 45,100 for BMS and Rs 1,21,400 for DES. Price regulation has brought down the prices of stents of BMS by 74 per cent and of DES by 85 per cent.