Ranking system for hospitals, an appreciative move by IRDA
Posted on: 21/Apr/2014 11:43:44 AM
Just like the ranking system in banking industry introduced by credit information bureau, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is gearing up to set a ranking system in healthcare industry too. M Ramprasad, a member of IRDA recently said that they have requested the health insurance providers to make use of unique identification numbers to each one of the hospitals they are dealing with for cover-based treatments, as it would help in tracking them for their charges or claims.
IRDA, together with Insurance Information Bureau (an IRDA arm), launched a hospital registry. It has a list of over 26000 hospitals availing treatments along with health covers. Disparities in charges are identified in several hospitals. For instance, cataract operations are priced anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000 or even more.
“We are deriving a method to introduce ranking system in hospitals,” he said. This will be of good help in identifying fraudsters, either directly by patients or insurance companies. Till date, there has been no regulator for hospitals. This initiative by IRDA is the first of its kind that would address concerns of patients about exorbitant pricing for treatment procedures.
