New writ petition to be filed for 32 hospitals at Delhi HC for overcharging cardiac stents

Mumbai, May 2017: Advocate Birender Sangwan has listed 32 hospitals in a single writ petition to be filed at the Delhi High Court (HC) for violation of ceiling price fixed for coronary stents by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on February 14. He had earlier filed PILs against 18 hospitals at Delhi High Court (HC) for overcharging cardiac stents.
The drug price regulator has so far received 40 written complaints against major hospitals in the country ever since NPPA fixed the ceiling prices of stents.
Many of these cases of overcharging have, however, also been referred by the NPPA to respective state drug controllers for audit and follow-up. The list includes leading government and private hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.
Advocate Sangwan is credited to have led slashing of prices of cardiac stents in February through a PIL filed earlier this year. The landmark verdict was a huge relief for many cardiac patients across the country as the ceiling price of bare metal stents was brought down to Rs.7,260 from Rs.45,000; and that of drug eluting stents were fixed at Rs.29,600 from about a whopping Rs.1.2 lakh.
Says Advocate Sangwan, "PILs have now been clubbed into a single writ petition against 32 hospitals which have figured in the NPPA's list of offenders violating the ceiling price order dated February 14, 2017." On February 14, NPPA announced cut in prices of coronary stents by up to 85% by capping them at Rs.7,260 for bare metal ones and Rs.29,600 for drug eluting variety.
NPPA has suggested all the state drug controllers to step up their vigilance as a part of its larger plan to detect overpricing of stents in government and private hospitals subsequent to NPPA receiving complaints about stents being sold at higher prices at hospitals in Delhi, Dehradun, Mumbai, Harayana, Pune and Nashik.
The price capping of stents was done to fix a standardised specification of stent and its MRP to stop fleecing of patients. Subsequent to which, NPPA had written to all the chief secretaries to ensure compliance of stents price capping, its availability and uninterrupted cardiac care services. The government brought in important reforms such as the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) in 2011 and also issued the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) in 2013.
Two complaints of overcharging had been received against the KEM hospital. The first complaint was received on February 26, followed by another complaint on March 1, 2017. The other hospitals include Lilavati Hospital, Bandra, the complaint of which was received on February 23, 2017 and Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Mira Road, Thane, the complaint of which was received on March 4, 2017.
Two other hospitals in Maharashtra include Pune Hospital and Research Centre, Pune, the complaint of which was received on March 4, 2017 and Six Sigma Medicare and Research Ltd, Nashik, the complaint of which was received on February 25, 2017.
On February 26, the official Twitter handle of NPPA tweeted that a complaint was received against Anand Hospital (Meerut), Uttar Pradesh. Prior to this, complaints were received against Bharat Heart Institute (Dehradun), Uttarakhand, Oxygen Hospital (Rohtak), Haryana, Max Hospital Saket, New Delhi, Nidaan Multispecialty Hospital (Sonepat), Haryana and Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai.