Ramesh Hospitals, one of the most popular private hospitals in Vijayawada, has been in the dock ever since 10 Covid-19 patients died in a major fire accident at Swarna Palace Hotel, which was hired by the hospital as a Covid Care Centre, on August 9.
While chairman of the hospital Dr Ramesh Pothineni has been absconding since the incident, the police authorities have been thoroughly investigating into the incident and interrogating several doctors and others associated with the hospital and the hotel.
Sources said more skeletons are tumbling out of the Ramesh Hospitals cupboard, as the investigating authorities started probing into the fire accident incident and found that it had been fleecing patients with high fees to treat Covid-19.
Interestingly, Ramesh Hospitals had been an empanelled hospital by the state government under Arogya Sri till recently.
According to the Arogya Sri website, the hospital had been paid an amount of Rs 48,04,72,078 (more than Rs 48 crore) by the then Chandrababu Naidu government during 2018-19 financial year.
The hospital had claimed to have treated 5908 patients under Arogya Sri during this period for this huge amount; which means, on an average, it has claimed Rs 81,000 per each patient.
“This is apart from the amount paid for the patients treated under Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The claim details are being investigated into,” sources said.
Surprisingly, Ramesh Hospitals has withdrawn from Arogya Sri recently, apparently realising that it cannot make huge claims from the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government, as it had done during the Naidu regime.
“Moreover, the Jagan government has recently included Covid-19 under Arogya Sri. It would mean, the government would pay only Arogya Sri rates to the private hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients under the scheme,” sources said.
Apparently realising that it cannot charge more from Covid-19 patients, Ramesh Hospitals voluntarily opted out of the Arogya Sri scheme, so that it can charge exorbitant rates from the Covid-19 patients, sources added.