Karnataka’s Health Department is considering changes to rules that require families to pay private hospitals before receiving the bodies of deceased relatives, Health Minister U.T. Khader said, amid complaints that the practice is placing additional pressure on families during bereavement.
Under the rules currently in force, private hospitals can require families to pay a prescribed amount before handing over a body. The arrangement has led to complaints that hospitals have withheld bodies when relatives were unable to make payment. In some cases, the practice has triggered anger among family members and resulted in complaints being filed, according to a report by Prajavani.
Khader said the department would discuss the issue with private hospitals and the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association before taking further action. The proposed changes are intended to prevent hospitals from retaining bodies as a means of recovering unpaid charges, particularly from families facing financial hardship.
“ If someone dies in a private hospital, the family has to pay money to receive the body. This will be a burden for families facing financial difficulties. The body should not be retained and the family harassed for money,” Khader said, according to the report.
The minister said laws related to the issue had been framed in 2007 and 2018 but had not been implemented effectively. He said the 2018 law allowed hospitals to take a security deposit before releasing a body. It also included provisions for filing cases against people who failed to pay hospital charges.
According to Khader, the existing provisions have pushed some families to borrow money to settle hospital bills before they can take the body of a relative. The department is therefore considering changes to the law after consultations with hospital associations and other stakeholders.
The issue places two competing concerns within the same regulatory framework: a hospital’s effort to recover unpaid charges and a family’s ability to receive a deceased relative without immediate financial settlement. The government’s proposed review could determine whether hospitals will continue to be permitted to seek security or payment before release, and what enforcement mechanism will apply when bills remain unpaid.
The minister did not announce a specific timeline for introducing the revised rules. The next step will be consultations between the Health Department, private hospitals and nursing homes, and their association before a new legal framework is considered.
