The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has decided to investigate the unfair prices of products and services rendered by private super speciality hospitals in the Capital.

The Commission in its investigation noted that private hospitals were making huge profit margins by selling products to the ‘locked-in inpatients’ and that this was detrimental to the patients.

In an official statement, the Commission said that it is widening the scope of the investigation to cover certain practices of super speciality hospitals across Delhi, particularly those involving provision of healthcare products and services to in-patients. This is an attempt to eliminate practices having adverse effect on the competition in the healthcare sector and also to protect the interest of consumers.

The investigation will focus on the products that are sold to in-patients even though they are not required on an urgent basis for any medical procedure/intervention, ones that do not involve any high degree of quality issue from the medical procedure point of view and on those that the patients can purchase from open market at a lesser price exercising their rational choice.

The Commission directed its officials to investigate this expeditiously.

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