In a relief to lakhs of patients, govt caps coronary stent price
Hindustan Times, New Delhi-15th feb 017
The selling price of
stents has been slashed by up to 85%.
Prices of life-saving
coronary stents -- a spring-like metal device used to prop open blocked
arteries -- have been capped at Rs 30,000, which is a cost drop of about 85%
from what is commercially available.
The National
Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) — the country’s top body that fixes
prices for drugs -- on Monday fixed the rates of bare metal stents and
drug-eluting stents at Rs 7,260 and 29,600 respectively.
The move comes as a
relief for lakhs of patients who are forced to pay inordinately high amounts
for the device.
There are massive
margins charged at each step in the distribution and supply of stents, and by
the time the patient gets it, the increase from the original cost of the stent
is often in the range of 1,000-2,000%.
There has been a lot
of criticism about hospitals making huge profits on stents, which in some cases
was as high as 650%.
“Hospitals now under legal obligation to bill
cardiac stents separately from ‘procedure’ or ‘packages’,” tweeted NPPAindia.
While cardiologists
largely welcomed the step, there is also a fear about quality getting
compromised in the long run.
“It is good that more
people will now be able to afford this life-saving device; however, in the long
run I see high-quality stents disappearing from our market because of the cap.
It would have been a better idea to divide stents into different categories,
including specialised stents, and then fix the price. These devices can’t be
divided into just two broad categories,” says senior cardiologist Dr Purshottam
Lal.
The Union health
ministry included stents in NLEM last year, after the Delhi high court sought
action on a public interest petition seeking price control on the device.
All medicines under
NLEM have to be notified as schedule-I drugs so that their prices can be
controlled.
With cardio vascular
diseases on the rise, the number of angioplasties being performed has doubled
in the country during the past 5 years.
· Courtesy Hindustan Times 15.02.2017
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