Delhi to reduce COVID-19 testing price to Rs 2,000-2,500: Report

Representative Image (Image: BMC)

The Delhi government is looking to slash coronavirus test rates by half of the current Rs 4,500. The state is in talks with private hospitals and diagnostic centres to discuss the same and tests could soon cost between Rs 2,000-2,500, sources told The Economic Times.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

Prices of testing kits reduce due to an increased number of local options. As the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that price caps for RT-PCR testing would be removed, many states have already cut or are considering reducing prices for the process.

“This price was fixed at a time when testing kits were in short supply and had to be imported. With so many vendors now approved and the kits being indigenously produced, the price can be brought down,” a source in Delhi health services told ET.

Private testing centres are however not all on board, and said a price drop would “compromise quality.” They pointed out that testing costs for them includes more than just the kit.

“For every test, the phlebotomist has to wear a new personal protective equipment (PPE). There is an additional cost of transportation and a particular medium in which the sample needs to be maintained. We are already conducting these tests on a no-profit basis,” the owner of a South Delhi lab told the paper.

Delhi would be following Maharashtra and Karnataka, which made similar moves and cut the test cost to Rs 3,000.

It also comes after Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, ICMR, and secretary, department of health research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare asked state chief secretaries to “fix agreeable prices” for RT-PCR testing for COVID-19.

In a letter to states, ICMR said the reduced charges are justified as majority of testing material is now being made indigenously, Mint reported.

“All efforts have been made to facilitate local companies … Indigenous diagnostic kits are also being approved on a fast track basis for RT-PCR testing … testing supplies are also stabilised … Prices are becoming competitive and are undergoing reduction because of varied options," Dr Bhargava said in the letter written to chief secretaries of all states two weeks ago.

“The earlier upper ceiling of Rs 4,500 may not be applicable now. Therefore, all state governments and UT administrations are advised to negotiate with private labs and fix up mutually agreeable prices for samples being sent by the government and also for private individuals desirous of testing by these labs," Bhargava added.

Notably, testing at government hospitals has been free, while the Rs 4,500 cap was for private facilities. In case a private facility undertook tests for the government Rs 3,500 was reimbursed.

Sources added that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has also “informally asked” private players to downward adjust prices.