While verifying the amount being charged by private hospitals for COVID-19 treatment, a team of auditors appointed by the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations recovered ₹44 lakh, Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao informed on Tuesday.

The municipal corporations appointed multiple teams of auditors after receiving several complaints of private hospitals overcharging the patients undergoing treatment for the novel coronavirus. Twenty such teams of auditors were appointed for hospitals in rural parts of the district.

The teams have started cross-checking the bills issued to COVID-19 patients during admission at various private hospitals in the city, reported The Indian Express.

The Pune administration had received more than 100 complaints, of which 60 per cent of cases were confirmed upon investigation. A total bill checked amounted to ₹2.15 crore and the auditors found unfair inflation of ₹30.94 lakh in these. After adjustments, the cumulative total of the bills shrank to ₹1.84 crores, the media reported.

The auditing teams checked 31 bills alone in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Cumulative inflation of ₹12 lakh in the total bill total of ₹91.83 lakh was found.

‘With the audit system, we have been able to save approximately ₹44 lakh for families of COVID-19 patients,’ Saurabh Rao was quoted as saying

The administration has now acquired 80 per cent of the total beds across all private hospitals and nursing homes, which would provide relief to patients who have no medical insurance. For the rest of the 20 per cent, hospitals can charge their own rates. Price of treatment had also been capped by the administration.

Earlier in the week, a special audit of 17 private hospitals in Maharashtra’s Thane city found that they overcharged coronavirus patients ₹1.82 crores, despite the government’s cap on treatment costs.

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