Govt mulls standard treatment protocol

The health ministry is considering a standardised treatment protocol for various diseases to tide over the problems created due to refusal of insurance companies to comply with cashless insurance schemes.

Health Secretary Sujatha Rao today chaired a meeting of medical experts and representatives of private hospitals like Apollo and Fortis.

The experts identified 21 major diseases in which a treatment protocol could be made and formed a committee to look into all other aspects, health ministry sources said.

The committee, which has six members, will carry out studies and talk to all stakeholders, after which they will meet again next week to take stock of the situation.

Among the experts who attended the meeting were Medical Council of India Members Gautam Sen and Ranjit Roy Chowdhary; FICCI representative, Narottam Puri; and Dr Srinath Reddy from AIIMS.

According to sources, the members at the meeting felt treatment in some cases was technology-driven and proper treatment protocol should be followed.

In a major decision, insurance firms had last month withdrawn cashless facilities from most private hospitals, accusing them of overcharging.