Covid-19 Pune: Health department fixes plasma charges at Rs 5500 per bag, patients to get refund if overcharged

On Sep 26, 2020

Pune: The state health department has approved maximum amount of Rs 5500 per plasma bag (200 ml) to be charged from patients or their relatives by the private and trust-run blood banks and hospitals.

If any private or trust-run blood bank overcharges for the plasma bag, then their license will be revoked, the state health department has warned. The patients or relatives will also be refunded the extra amount charged by the concerned blood bank or hospital.

Presently, blood banks and hospitals are charging between three to seven thousand rupees for a plasma bag of 200 ml from the patients. However, the health department’s order will prove to be a big relief for Covid-19 patients in Pune city as well as Maharashtra state.

Similar to Remdesivir injections, there is a shortage of plasma in the city and the state. It is feared that the plasma bags will be sold at exorbitant prices and needy patients will be at a loss due to these malpractices. Hence the rate fixation by the state health department has gained importance.

The state health department has made it clear that if the plasma bag is made available with the Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) blood screening, then apart from the bag charges, maximum charges that can be levied for this NAT test is Rs 1200. Similarly for the Chemiluminescence screening the maximum charge that can be levied will be Rs 500.

Plasma therapy is currently being used on an experimental basis for Covid-19 patients in government medical colleges in the state. The Central Government and the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) have issued guidelines for the use of plasma therapy.

In Pune and other parts of the state, private and trust-run blood banks were charging Rs 3000 to Rs 7000 per bag (200 ml) of convalescent plasma (off label) which was collected using the Plasmapheresis method. Sometimes, even the donor was being asked to pay for the plasma donation.

Therefore, the State Blood Transfusion Council had set up a committee to make plasma available to patients at affordable rates. The committee said the rates fixed were based on the cost of collecting plasma and the service charges for additional tests or special tests on blood as specified in the National Blood Policy.