Capping of stent pricing does have any relevance when the government has introduced Ayushman Bharat or National Health Protection Scheme to make healthcare affordable, stated experts from the medical device industry.
With Ayushman Bharat, patients will now have money to fund a procedure. Price cap has happened with an assumption that patients do not have the money. Today, if the government can give a patient Rs. 5 lakh worth of coverage, one wonders whether the price cap was really called for. Therefore price cap in its current form is not the answer, said Probir Das, chairman FICCI Medical Devices Forum and managing director, Terumo India.
In private healthcare, medical devices are covered under the procedural cost but the reality is that medical insurance does not cover diagnostics. Hence the need of the hour is to bring in significant reforms in medical insurance, he added.
“There is no country in the world which has delivered high quality affordable care through the merit of a low cost device. Affordability is a factor of healthcare financing which is the fundamental basis of an insurance scheme. Now when the whole issue of pricing discussion started two years ago, Ayushman Bharat was seen to be impossible. But now the environment for medical devices is turning positive, stated Das at the sidelines of the recently concluded Indian Pharma and India Medical Devices 2018 event .
Pricing is a complex eco-system and this is where Health Technology Assessment Board (HTAB) which is part of the department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is important. Fundamentally cost element of demand is being addressed by financing. The government has already put together the HTAB to ensure that no one will incur unnecessary cost, he added.
Chipping their view point were a panel of experts who stated that while price cap is one part of the overall dialogue, there is need to consider patient access, which might vary by geography by financial status and technology.
There is a need to take into account the overall eco-system on how a patient gets quality care. There is a need to understand the mismatch between capacity and utilisation which is plenty in urban areas and not in rural setting. Besides there is need to leap frog a couple of steps using technology to increase access to affordable medical care.
According to Veena Kohli, secretary, Association of Diagnostics Manufacturers of India and CEO, Vanguard Diagnostics. in-vitro diagnostics does not fall under the ambit of price control. But the recommendation of the industry is that if and when it happens, then the entire value chain of diagnostics should be brought under the same ambit. ” If we want to render quality diagnostics which is affordable to the Indian population, then the pathology labs which conduct these tests, should also be brought under the price control.”
“India is already recognised and appreciated for its low cost heath delivery model as global players like NHS from the UK and US-based Kaiser Permanente approach us to ascertain the affordability strategy and the business model. Thus reducing the device price is not the answer because we are already low cost. Instead the solution lies in enabling people to pay. So here we are hopeful of Ayushman Bharat,” concluded Das.