A representative photo of a municipal health worker showing a laboratory test tube holding mosquito larvae during an inspection at an old warehouse for stagnant water which could serve as a potential breeding site of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, known to spread the dengue.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The state government on Wednesday issued an order capping dengue testing rates in private hospitals at Rs 300 per ELISA NS1 antigen and IgM antibody test.
It has also fixed the rate for rapid card tests for the NS1 antigen, IgM and IgG antibodies at Rs 250.
This was decided after state health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao met with the officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), urban and rural development departments at the Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday.
While government hospitals offer dengue testing and treatment for free, the rates of dengue tests, including the rapid screening tests, in private hospitals and diagnostic laboratories vary between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, often offered in fever packages.
Now, the NS1 and IgM tests will cost a total of Rs 600. Private hospitals and laboratories are prohibited from charging more than Rs 600 for dengue testing.
Meanwhile, private hospital representatives, who held a consultative meeting with the department and the minister, had hoped for a better revision in their favour.
"In a consultative meeting (with the department) on Wednesday, we proposed hiking the price of these tests to Rs 800 because it was Rs 500 more than five years ago. We hoped it would at least settle at Rs 600 per test but the government has now slashed it to Rs 300, which is not very viable for private hospitals," Dr Govindaiah Yatheesh, president, Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA), told DH.
These representatives will soon seek an appointment and meet with the health minister about potentially revising these rates again.
The health minister will be holding another meeting with district officials and CEOs of zilla panchayats on Thursday regarding dengue control measures.