September 25th 2023.
A District Consumer Commission in Mumbai has ordered the Dean of Shushrusha Citizens Co-Operative Hospital Ltd. in Dadar to pay ₹24,000 with interest to a resident of Dadar. The hospital had taken mark up charges for providing cashless hospitalization, which the commission said that they failed to prove was justified. Additionally, the commission directed the hospital to pay ₹8,000 as compensation for any mental agony and litigation cost.
The ruling came after Jitendra Ladhani, a Dadar resident, filed a complaint against the hospital's dean and M/s Star Health & Allied Insurance Co. Ltd. The directive to compensation was only to the dean and not to Star Health. The complaint was filed after Ladhani's father was admitted to the hospital in November 2017 and passed away the same month. Ladhani's father had taken out a Group Insurance Policy from Star with a sum assured of ₹5 lakh. After his father's death, Ladhani noticed that the hospital had added ₹24,000 as mark-up charges towards providing the cashless hospitalization service.
The hospital claimed that Ladhani's father was admitted as a non-institutional patient and that Ladhani was aware of the 15% mark-up fee. The hospital also stated that Ladhani should have objected to the fee immediately. However, the commission found that there was no mention of recovering mark-up charges in the memorandum of agreement between the hospital and Star. Furthermore, the commission observed that Star had authorized ₹10,000 for cashless treatment two days after hospitalization. This led the commission to conclude that the hospital had failed to provide evidence that they were entitled to mark-up charges. As Star had already settled the amount with the complainant, the commission chose not to entertain a complaint against it. Instead, the commission directed the hospital to refund the amount with 6% interest from the date of filing the complaint.
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