{"id":285415,"date":"2025-04-19T07:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T07:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/19\/delhi-hc-calls-for-reforms-as-hospital-discharge-turns-into-trauma-for-many-patients-due-to-billing-insurance-delays\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T07:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T07:12:05","slug":"delhi-hc-calls-for-reforms-as-hospital-discharge-turns-into-trauma-for-many-patients-due-to-billing-insurance-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/19\/delhi-hc-calls-for-reforms-as-hospital-discharge-turns-into-trauma-for-many-patients-due-to-billing-insurance-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi HC calls for reforms as hospital discharge turns into “trauma” for many patients due to billing, insurance delays"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Delhi High Court<\/a> has highlighted the \u201charassment and mental trauma\u201d that patients and their families often face while being discharged from hospitals and settling bills. The court has now called for a proper regulatory system to make the process smoother.<\/p>\n

In an order passed on Thursday, the court asked the Centre, Delhi government, and relevant authorities to step in and create a policy. This came while hearing the case of a lawyer who accused Max Hospital<\/a> in Saket of offences like cheating, wrongful confinement, and breach of trust.<\/p>\n

While the court cleared the hospital of any criminal wrongdoing, it did raise concerns about how patients are often troubled over pending payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch incidents of alleged harassment in settling final bills are not untold stories but are frequently suffered by patients,\u201d Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said. She added, \u201cThe trauma of an ailment is often compounded by delays in discharge caused by insurance approvals, pushing families into distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said that although the lawyer\u2019s complaint was understandable, the situation didn\u2019t amount to a criminal offence. \u201cMuch angst has been expressed at many forums about the delay in insurance approvals. This may be a ground for seeking compensation for mental harassment but not for criminal prosecution,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

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The case was about a lawyer who had cysticercosis in his right hand. He underwent surgery at Max Hospital and had a cashless insurance plan from Max Bupa, which had Max Hospital on its network. However, because the insurance pre-authorisation was limited, the hospital asked him to pay the remaining balance at the time of admission. He later said this was fraud and wrongful detention.The high court supported the lower court’s decision, saying the hospital had no dishonest intentions. \u201cThough it may seem onerous, requiring a patient to deposit the balance when pre-authorisation is limited cannot be termed extraction of money or dishonest conduct. The patient was informed in advance.\u201dThe court also noted that the patient\u2019s insurance covered a standard room, but he chose a deluxe one. The extra charge of Rs 57,332 was taken from his deposit.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the court stressed the urgent need for rules and regulations to avoid such issues in future. \u201cDespite recommendations from various courts and the NHRC\u2019s proposed Charter of Patients\u2019 Rights, no final framework has been implemented. This is an area that must be addressed jointly by the Centre, Delhi government, IRDA, and medical councils,\u201d it said.
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The Delhi High Court has highlighted the \u201charassment and mental trauma\u201d that patients and their families often face while being discharged from hospitals and settling bills. The court has now called for a proper regulatory system to make the process smoother. In an order passed on Thursday, the court asked the Centre, Delhi government, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/118783427.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[1968,1187,221637,94,2921,2446,46373,1261,180,221636,11068,221633,221638,107094,221634,221635,221632,191607,9164,7362,40165,5342],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285417,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285415\/revisions\/285417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}