Medical apathy - billing fraud!

Medical apathy – once again, a case in Bhayandar [fraud in medical billing]

My brother had approached this hospital for the expected treatment of his sick wife, who was down with chronic fever, body ache and typical symptoms of a viral fever. He came back and narrated his experience which appalled me, once again, at the dark intensity of the iron age. The disgust of hospitals, clinics, private practitioners and the whole medical system. Humans are no longer humans in purview of the so-called medical workmen. They are mere ‘objects’! Even though I know this, it’s not new to me, the mal-practices are too much loud to ignore; but still….i was disgusted upon learning of this utterly callous attitude and the seemingly ridiculous practices, so close to my home!

When they [the patients] checked into a 'Manavata Polyclinic', located at Kalpita Building, near NKGSB, Navghar Road, Bhayandar [E], all they hoped was to get well and come out a feeling better, lighter, having gotten rid of the disease that was haunting...All they got instead was a rude nasty shock in the form of the invoice for three days, for about 2-3 hours of admission per day. The planned process was that the patient would be administered doses intravenously and observed for a couple of hours and then discharged – this process was to be repeated for about 3-4 days for betterment. At the end of the second day when my brother asked for the bill, he was shocked in utter confusion. Nonetheless, he came back the next day, demanding explanation from the admin about the charges levied in the bill, upon which he was asked to wait to meet the doctor who was in-charge of the said hospital [a private clinic, too big to be a clinic]. Upon meeting the ‘doctor’, he was informed that these were minimum charges that they would have to pay if he wanted to ‘discharge’ the patient. What they didn’t know was that the person questioning them – my brother – was nothing short of a medical sales representative with years of experience under his belt. At being caught red-handed, the face of the doctor was drained and he tried to cover up. Behaving sheepishly, blushing with sheer embarassment and offense, the so called doctor had nowhere to go. 

This was what happened: for all the doses, syringes, needles, bottles, the clinic had charged upto 250% extra. For eg if a medicine cost 54/- they had billed the same vial for upto 200/-! [sick fellows]. Because we could find out the actual cost of a medicine [here the 54/- vial costs a medical sales person around 24/- lesser], they had to take back their bills. But what if a patient cannot find out actual costs? They would be cheated of their money! What kind of ‘business’ is this that people make out of sickness?? Not only that, for the syringes, needles, and other medicines that were given, the clinic charged a similar 200-250% extra! Even IF the patient comes out rid of the disease, what sense does it make to produce falsified and fake bills?? What kind of high-end facilities or infrastructure is the hospital providing to patients that will alleviate their pain & suffering? Nonsense!

Anyone else in my brother’s place could have easily escalated the matter and charged at the doctor like a bull for false practices! [I doubt at the authenticity of the so called doctor even! Anyway]. When he narrated this to me, little did he know this incident can be documented and made public! The said polyclinic is run by R.P. Palande – medical director [m: 9819250565] and Snehal Palande – ayurvedic doctor.

All that I want to convey through this post is, no matter what happens, no mater how much one suffers, you cannot flow your hard-earned money like this!! Physical suffering + mental harassment + emotional drain can only add up to verbal outburst which is what my brother did, when the doctor tried his best to calm him and ‘mutually settle’ the matter, so his ‘business’ does not get affected. I reprimanded my brother for not creating a ruckus so that all the other patients would be alerted of the mal practice.

We as patients approach a hospital, clinic or a medical professional with the hope that our suffering will be reduced, treated, putting our body and lives at their responsibility! What we don’t know is there are morally porn people who make money and business from corpses and also human shit!

I urge you all – who are reading – to think upon this and make yourselves vigilant and alert and not let these worthless ‘pigs’ suck our money from us! By writing this post, I intend to make people aware, alert and responsible citizens and save their lives and that of their kin.