Just
like the ranking system in banking industry introduced by Credit information
bureau CIBIL, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is
gearing up to set a ranking system in healthcare industry too.
Mr.
M . Ramprasad, a member of IRDA recently said that they have requested the
health insurance providers to make use of unique identification numbers to each
one of the hospitals they are dealing with for cover-based treatments, as it
would help in tracking them for their charges or claims.
IRDA,
together with Insurance Information Bureau (an IRDA arm), launched a hospital
registry. It has a list of more than 26,000 hospitals availing treatments along
with health covers.
Disparities
in charges are identified in many hospitals. For instance, cataract operations
are priced anywhere between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 40,000 or / even more.
“We
are deriving a method to introduce ranking system in hospitals” M . Ramprasad
said.
This
will be of good help in identifying fraudsters, either directly by patients or
insurance companies. Till date, there has been no regulator for hospitals. This
initiative by IRDA is the first of its kind that would address concerns of
patients about exorbitant pricing for treatment procedures.
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