Price cuts will bring down quality of cancer care: Dr BS Ajay Kumar

MUMBAI: Dr B S Ajaykumar MD of Healthcare Global that runs chain of cancer hospitals in India said that the drug pricing regulator's move to cut down trade margin of cancer drugs in India is interfering with the way hospital functions and will bring down the quality of care to cancer patients. HCG has filed a writ petition against the government move at Karnataka High Court, challenging the price cut of key cancer drugs that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Control (NPPA) announced last month."There is Ayushman Bharat scheme for patients who can't afford healthcare, then there are government run generic drug stores so who is the government trying to help?", Dr Ajaykumar told ET. HCG in its petition has questioned the emergency provision of bringing the price cut and has warned that such measures will end up bringing down the quality of cancer care. Ajaykumar says that instead of bringing such price cuts, the government should bring cashless healthcare system so that the patients do not have to pay out of pocket at all. "I don't know what the outcome of this case will be, but I want to make a point", Ajaykumar told ET. The NPPA in March this year cut down the prices of nearly 390 cancer drugs by nearly 87%, by rationalizing the trade margin of these cancer drugs, which it said will save nearly Rs 800 crores to patients. HCG which is listed on BSE, saw its shares fall by 2.18% on Monday's trade, while the Sensex was had hit a high of three months. Rating agency ICRA in its report on hospitals released in January this year had said that the credit profile of the hospital sector has deteriorated since the beginning of 2017 due to several factors like Goods and Services Tax (GST), cap on prices of stents and knee implants by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and stiff regulatory action by certain states, including putting restrictions on procedure rates, levying penalties and placing operational limitations on erring hospitals. "The debt protection indicators had come under pressure primarily on account of lower profitability and increase in leverage to fund the expansion", ICRA had said. However the rating firm added that with the new capacity now stabilising and the improvement expected in the performance because of waning effect of the disruptive events of the last two years, it expects the debt protection indicators to improve.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2I4iJbx