Pune Municipal Corporation has ordered surprise inspections across all 15 ward offices to check whether private hospitals and clinics are prominently displaying treatment rates and available facilities in Marathi and English, in a move aimed at improving billing transparency for patients.
The inspections will cover healthcare establishments registered under the Maharashtra Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1949. Pune has around 950 registered private hospitals and clinics, making enforcement of the disclosure rules a significant administrative challenge for the civic body.
Under the Maharashtra Nursing Home Registration Rules, 2021, hospitals must display their treatment rates and information about available facilities in a location that is easily visible to patients. The rate cards must be displayed prominently and updated immediately whenever charges change. The requirements are listed in Schedule III of the rules.
The Maharashtra government issued a circular on October 16 reiterating these obligations. The circular followed concerns over excessive charges imposed by private hospitals and disputes between hospitals and families over medical bills. The PMC has now instructed ward medical officers to verify whether the rules are being followed during unannounced visits.
PMC assistant chief health officer Dr Suryakant Devkar directed the medical officers to conduct the inspections and establish whether hospitals are complying with the display requirements. The action places responsibility on the ward-level health administration, which is expected to check the information available to patients inside registered establishments.
The enforcement question is particularly important because a displayed rate card is only useful if it is current, visible and sufficiently detailed for patients and their families to understand the charges. The rules also require hospitals to update the information promptly when fees change, rather than treating the display as a one-time registration formality.
Dr Abhijit More, a health worker associated with the Jan Arogya Abhiyan, said issuing an order would not be enough and that officials needed to physically visit hospitals to inspect compliance. He also called for compliance checks during the renewal of nursing home licences. More claimed that visible action against hospitals violating the rules has been rare.
The PMC’s inspections will therefore test not only whether hospitals have displayed treatment rates in the required languages, but also whether the civic system can consistently monitor compliance and act against violations. The next step is for the 15 ward offices to carry out the surprise checks and report on implementation.
