Hospitals seek clarity on offsite vaccination fee

Private hospitals have sought clarity from the government regarding service charges for vaccination programmes that they conduct on the premises of corporates, RWAs and other sites outside of hospitals.

The new vaccination guidelines issued by the government on June 8 capped the service charges that hospitals can bill customers at ₹150 per dose.

The maximum price that hospitals can charge customers per dose have been fixed at ₹780 for Serum Institute of India’s (SII) Covishield, ₹1,410 for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and ₹1,145 for the imported Russian Sputnik vaccine.


Hospitals have been allowed to tie up with other entities to conduct private vaccination camps for companies, housing societies and other organisations. At some of these offsite camps, customers have been charged ₹1,150 or more. Hospitals have revised vaccine prices on their premises, but, says a private hospital executive, “we are not clear about the way forward for the office vaccination. We will have to revisit our tieups with corporates, RWAs depending on what the government decides.”

Service charges for offsite vaccination camps are higher, as they include the costs of ambulances at the site, as well as additional administration charges.

‘Vaccination will be Hit’
The Association of Healthcare Providers (India) AHPI said that if the government order does not say anything about the charges that the hospitals can take for offsite vaccinations, it will come out with a policy regarding the hospitals under its umbrella.

“If the hospitals don’t get any clarity, we on our part will fix charges for offsite vaccinations by June 21. Till then the hospitals can charge what they have been charging,” said Girdhar Gyani, director general, AHPI.

Hospitals also feel that Rs 150 cap will result in vaccination numbers going downs as this will demotivate private healthcare providers from setting up jumbo centers or large camps to vaccinate people in large numbers.

“The consumption will fall, if the Rs 150 cap is what the government decides also for offsite vaccinations. We expect some relaxation from the state government,” said an executive.