AIIMS user charges: No headway on plan

NEW DELHI: The proposal by AIIMS to do away with user charges on diagnostic procedures like blood tests, ultrasound, among others which cost less than Rs 500, has not made much headway till now.

AIIMS had in November started a pilot study to justify its plan and had submitted it to the union health ministry. However, there has been no development on it since then and the AIIMS administration has now sought details of the user fees charged for each tests from each department.

The matter of reviewing user charges came to light last year when the health ministry, on directives from the finance ministry, asked the hospital to review and revise user charges which have remained unchanged in the past 20 years.

The cost of many routine tests at AIIMS ranges between Rs 10 and Rs 25.

A committee headed by Anoop Saraya, head of department of gastroenterology at AIIMS, was constituted to review the user fee charges at the hospital and had submitted its report, in which it recommended that private ward charges should be increased to Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 per day to make up for the loss as their rates are cheaper as compared to that of semi-private ward charges in corporate hospitals that can be accessed by Central Government Health Scheme beneficiaries.