Tuesday, September 22, 2009

TPA’s to deduct TDS when releasing payment to Hospitals

TPA’s (Third Party Administrators) to deduct TDS when releasing payment to Hospitals

Recent news item indicates that this decision is now being implemented.We are not going into details of the same from taxation angle but we feel that the impact of this will be increase in rates by hospitals as they will find it a necessity to increase the rates with a view to handle the increased need for working capital.

The normal inflation of health care in India is 15% per year-should we expect 18% during 2010. Let us wait and watch.

Medical Mafia Aug 28, 2009 issue of Fortune

It is always a pleasure to read independent articles in publications like Fortune, where an unbiased article can be an eye opener for all of us.

This article is worth reading – where a group comprising of doctors and lawyers handles the cases and fights with Health Insurance company's so that the genuine or inflated claims are made on insurance companies and are also passed.

The team covered in the article manages the best of doctors and they are assisted by lawyers to appear in the courts so that the client gets paid at much higher level. Ofcourse the agreed % out of this payment goes into their (lawyer/doctors) pocket. Question before us is does it happen because Health Insurance co’s in USA are also hesitant in passing of claims?

We do hope that Indian Non Life Insurance co’s as well as Health Insurance co’s will take corrective steps well in advance so that we can avoid excessive role for lawyers to get the claims passed.