Regulating Private Hospital Charges

Minister of Health, Dr Rajitha Senaratne while addressing a press briefing in Colombo on Saturday (17) said, that all private hospital charges including in-house treatments and lab tests will be regulated in the near future. Accordingly, he has directed the Director General of Health Services to introduce regulations for private hospital charges within the powers vested under the Private Medical Institutions Regulation Act.

He stated that a full blood count (FBC) currently costs around Rs 800-900 and that this can be brought down to around Rs 250 while Rs 1,000 can be made the maximum fee for an NS1 antigen test, a test for dengue, which has sometimes cost around Rs 4,000.

A discussion will be held with relevant representatives of private hospitals on Sunday and necessary action will be initiated by Monday (26), the minister concluded.