AiMeD welcomes, also offering help design a Uniform National Framework for Holistic Transparency
New Delhi/ Bangalore: Central government and Karnataka government have initiated measures to bring about greater transparency in the pricing on hospital bills to ensure ease of treatment for patients. Central health ministry and Karnataka Food Safety and Drugs Administration have moved forward to rationalize hospital bills.
While Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) has welcomed the initiatives of both Central and Karnataka governments for transparency in bills, it has at the same time stressed the need of holistic transparency all along the supply chain of utilities for treatment and creation of a Uniform National Framwork for ensuring transparency.
AiMeD has also offered help in designing such framework.
The Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) welcomes the initiative of the Government of Karnataka Food Safety and Drugs Administration to introduce greater transparency in the pricing of medicines, medical devices and consumables by mandating disclosure of landing/base price, MRP and price charged to patients on hospital bills. This is a positive step towards enhancing patient awareness, promoting informed decision-making and improving accountability at the last mile of the healthcare delivery chain. However, while transparency at the hospital level is important, a comprehensive understanding of trade margins can only be achieved if pricing is tracked across the entire supply chain, beginning from the import landed price or ex- factory/manufacturer price at the first point of sale when GST is initially applied on goods entering Indias supply chain through importing distributors and finally retailing hospitals.
Mr. Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD, said: “_We appreciate the Karnataka Government’s efforts to bring greater transparency to healthcare billing and trade margins. While disclosure of procurement cost and MRP at the hospital level is a useful first step, it captures only the margin at the final point of supply. For effective policy intervention and identification of where excessive mark-ups may arise, the entire value chain needs to be mapped transparently from 1st post of sale when GST is initially applied on import landed price or manufacturer’s selling price through entire supply chain to the patient. End-to-end visibility of ensuring MRP and transaction value captured at invoice at each stage of supply chain will help ensure that corrective measures are evidence- based, fair and focused on the actual source of price escalation._”
AiMeD believes that supply chain-wide transparency will better support affordability objectives while avoiding undue focus on any single stakeholder in the healthcare ecosystem. AiMeD again urges the Department of Pharmaceutical to initiate stakeholder consultations for rationalisation, bring in pilots to study impact without creating shortages or accessibility challenges and ensure nationwide implementation to avoid state specific initiatives of varying nature AiMeD reiterates its request to the Department of Pharmaceuticals to convene stakeholder consultations and conduct pilot projects before wider rollout of any trade margin rationalisation measures. Such an approach would help evaluate the impact on affordability, availability and patient access while preventing disruptions in supply. AiMeD further recommends a harmonised national policy in place of disparate state-level initiatives toensure uniform implementation and regulatory certainty.
“AiMeD welcomes both the Union Health Ministry’s advisory on prominent display of hospital rates and the Karnataka FDA’s order requiring landing price and MRP on hospital bills. These are patient- friendly steps towards transparency. To make them fully effective, transparency should cover the whole supply chain, not only the hospital’s last point. Margins should be traced from the import landed cost, or the manufacturer’s ex-factory price, at the first point of sale, treating GST charged initially on sale to importers as the first point of sale. We urge a uniform national framework, and AiMeD stands ready to help design it.”
