COVID-19: When Doctors Turn to be Salesmen

Someone in our family had some health issues and visited a private hospital for an OPD consultation. Doctors enquired about his financial background and got to know that the person has health insurance. The doctor advised him to get admitted. The patient got admitted. Including the COVID-19, doctors have done all the tests, some pertinent to the disease, and some to say, for their own sales target. The COVID-19 test declared the patient positive, and the treatment with NaCl water bottles started.

The family members somehow understood the Hospital’s revenue and the sales target model. They fought to keep the patient at home quarantine rather than admitted to the hospital to avoid sales target cum bills in Lakhs. They have got their patient discharged. The doctors have advised a 5-days follow up for the other disease for which the patient visited the hospital. The patient revisited the hospital, and the doctors again insisted on the COVID-19 test. The patient and the relatives got surprised on the COVID-19 retest within 5-days when general guidelines are at least after 15-days. Later, when the patient visited a public hospital, they too have confirmed the same.

It happens when the private hospital doctors start turning to be the salesman. They try to maximize the revenue taking advantage of the information asymmetry. Common men don’t understand the medical language, and doctors recommend them different costly treatment measures to maximize their income, making healthcare unaffordable. The aggregation of hospitals into large chains and insurance companies is giving rise to the collusion strategy. It is also killing the small hospitals and local family doctor clinics, turning the hospitals into a costly hospitality industry. 

Therefore, governments and civic bodies should develop effective measures to eliminate the information asymmetry in the pandemic situation, such as COVID-19. The lawmakers should ensure the laws to curb the collision of insurance companies and aggregation of hospitals. They must look into the rising cost of healthcare in India. The availability of public healthcare facilities can be a solution to it. However, it is a mammoth task for widespread public healthcare availability for a vast country like India. Therefore, private hospitals should also be asked to enforce medical ethics. Healthcare affordability should be ensured at the private hospitals as well.