West Bengal Assembly passes Bill on ‘transparency’ in medical costs in private facilities

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The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Tuesday (June 17, 2025) passed a Bill that aims to regulate the cost of treatment in private clinical establishments in the State, and protect patients from unexpected, inflated charges for healthcare.

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The West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation, and Transparency) (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was tabled on Monday by the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Chandrima Bhattacharya.

The Bill amends the West Bengal Clinical Establishments Act, 2017 with the objective to regulate the licensing process of clinical establishments, increase transparency in their functioning, ensure strict adherence to fixed rates and package rates, and mandate electronic medical record-keeping.

No hidden charges

The Bill states that “every clinical establishment must strictly follow fixed rates and charges including the package rates for investigation, bed charges, operation theatre procedures”.

Under the amended Bill, privately owned medical facilities will also have to provide proper estimates for treatments not covered under fixed or package rates to the patient and their kin during initiation and through the course of treatment. Hospitals have also been mandated to communicate updated charges and the amount due to the patient and their kin every 24 hours. The amended Bill also prohibits final hospital bills from exceeding the estimates by a percentage specified by the State Health Department.

Increased surveillance 

Additionally, the Bill mandates detailed medical record-keeping of patients in the hospital’s electronic software via e-prescriptions, and detailed discharge summaries. 

“Clinical establishments will maintain such records and other data in the software as may be notified by the State government from time to time and all such records shall be furnished to the State Government electronically and physically, on demand by the Government,” the Bill states.

The Opposition raised concerns over women’s safety, and confidentiality.

During the debate, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari questioned the lack of specific steps or guidelines in the Bill to improve safety for women doctors, nurses, patients, and guards.

“If e-prescription is introduced, will the confidentiality of the patient’s personal information be protected?” Mr. Adhikari said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator also raised questions over the “practicality” of the new charges being communicated to the patient within 24 hours. “Sometimes it takes more than 24 hours for a patient’s health test report to come. So, this specific time frame is not realistic,” Mr. Adhikari said.

Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya responded to the LoP’s allegations, saying that, going forward, private hospitals would be obliged to inform patients about the cost of treatment in a timely manner, and that the Bill had been introduced to regulate the private healthcare sector.

Notably, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission, conceptualised and announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2017, also oversees treatment infrastructure in private clinical establishments across the State.

The President of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, Rupak Baruah, said that the Bill was a good initiative to bridge misunderstandings between common people and hospitals, but added that “medical treatment is a dynamic process that does not always adhere to a fixed system”.

Published - June 17, 2025 10:11 pm IST