₹10 lakh for 10 days of hospitalization. But, there was bad news in store. On the fifth day, his mother died. The hospital bill totalled ₹12.5 lakh, much more than estimated.
His mother didn’t have any insurance and so Agarwal had to foot the bill from his savings. The deviation in estimated expenses versus actual hospital bills is quite common.
Agarwal’s is a case in point. In some cases, particularly where it concerns emergency treatments such as neuro-trauma, organ failure and infection management, this deviation could even be as high as 20-25%.
It could be 10-12% for planned surgeries related to cardiology, oncology, orthopaedics and transplants, according to health-tech platform HexaHealth.