Thiruvananthapuram: As coronavirus positive cases spike in Kerala, the government has announced fixed rates for COVID-19 treatment at private hospitals on Saturday.
State Health Minister K K Shailaja said the order has been issued to all the private hospitals empanelled under Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP) and the government- referred patients in private healthcare institutions which are not under the KSAP.
The State Health Agency (SHA), which implements the KSAP, has issued the guidelines.
"Patients can seek medical care from any government or private hospitals. Both the sectors have come together to fight the pandemic COVID-19," the minister said.
The state government had already set up 28 government hospitals to treat the patients alone, Shailaja said in a press release.
As per the order, the general ward rates would be Rs 2,300 per day while the high dependency unit (HDU) would cost Rs 3,300.
The ICU rates would be Rs 6,500 but with ventilator, it would be Rs 11,500.
The RT-PCR test would cost Rs 2,750, antigen test Rs 625, expert NAT Rs 3,000, TrueNAT step-one and step-two tests Rs 1,500 each.
KASP was launched by the LDF government on April 1, last year.
Families which have enrolled in KASP would get an annual insurance coverage worth Rs 5 lakh.
Meanwhile, the state reported 1,103 new active COVID-19 cases and discharged 1,049 patients.
Of the cases detected during the day, 838 are of local transmission and the source of contact of 72 patients was unknown.
(With inputs from PTI)
