Supreme Court orders private labs to conduct COVID-19 test free of cost

On April 8, the Supreme Court of India issued an interim order that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-approved private, as well as government laboratories must conduct COVID-19 tests free of cost.

A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and S Ravindra Bhat were hearing the PIL of Shashank Deo Sudhi’s plea through video conferencing. And the interim order mentioned that it has given two weeks time to respondents to file an affidavit in reply to the Supreme Court’s interim order on free of cost COVID-19 test.

Commenting on the interim order of Supreme Court, Dr Ravi Gaur, Chief Operating Officer, Oncquest Labs, said, “All the private laboratories are working under reduced workforce and it is difficult to manage even the fixed cost (infrastructure and staff salaries). It is not feasible for us because we are already struggling for revenue generation as OPDs are closed and no routine and other testings are happening. Hence, with the latest interim order of the Supreme Court, it will be difficult for smaller labs to do the COVID-19 tests they might choose to discontinue. Bigger players might continue conducting the test for a short period as a CSR activity, but can’t sustain for a longer period.”

He further suggested, “If the government wants private players to do so, then they have to provide us with all consumables such as kits and reagents, which are required for conducting a test along with sample collection and sample transportation facilities. We can manage with our infrastructure.”

He also raised his concern saying that our workforce who are collecting the sample are exposed to all kinds of challenges due to Covid-19 and unlike government healthcare workers, they have not been covered in any healthcare schemes.”

On the other hand, Aishwarya Vasudevan, Group COO, Neuberg Diagnostics, shares, Neuberg Diagnostics has been doing COVID – 19 tests free of costs for all from its Bengaluru labs (Neuberg Anand) and for BPL patients from its Chennai (Neuberg Ehrlich), Pune (Neuberg AG diagnostics) and Ahmedabad (Neuberg Supratech Micropath) labs from day one. We are already processing tests free of costs for government-referred samples at all locations. We at Neuberg, appreciate the Supreme Court intervention to make COVID-19 testing accessible and affordable to all. We have already processed close to 300 free samples in Bengaluru.  We have also accepted to process over 500 samples in Chennai and over 1,000 samples in Ahmedabad, free of cost for the state governments. We are in discussions with the government to offer the same service in Pune. We at Neuberg consider COVID-19 testing as our social responsibility and not a revenue-generating activity. We are also of the opinion that the government or corporates, through their CSR funds, should reimburse Rs 2,000 – Rs 2,500 per test, to the private labs so that their materials’ costs are recovered. Alternatively, ICMR or state governments should provide testing kits, sample collection materials and PPE for private labs to do free testing. Also, MRP for PCR kits, RNA extraction kits, VTM sample tubes should be fixed. We feel this initiative from the government will drive free testing more effectively and will be welcomed by all private labs. Given the current situation, the routine business of all private labs have fallen by 70- 80 per cent and facilitating free COVID-19 testing must be supported by the government.”

“While we wait for further orders and directions from the Supreme Court and the Government of India, we do hope other corporate companies and NGOs also join Neuberg in their mission to provide free testing for all in Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Pune where our group has ICMR-approved RT PCR testing facilities”, she adds.

Dr Lal Path Labs and Thyrocare wished to remain quite on the interim order of the Supreme Court to conduct COVID-19 test at free of cost.

Mahendra Bajpai, Lawyer, Supreme Court too commented on the order and said,” It is a welcome move by the Supreme Court, let us not forget that the concept of ‘welfare state’ which has been deployed in this case and it will be a big relief to millions of poor who will be directly benefitted to this order. However, the question of reimbursement has been kept open by the Supreme Court and now it is for the government to take a call on this issue.”

He continued, “Under the prevalent laws, I don’t think that the government will be able to direct the private laboratories to bare the complete cost of the test. Some reimbursement will have to be provided to the ICMR-approved private laboratories to conduct the COVID-19 test, atleast to cover their cost.”

On March 21, 2020, the ICMR has issued guidelines and also mentioned that the National Task Force recommends that the maximum cost for testing samples should not exceed Rs 4,500/. This may include Rs 1,500 as a screening test for suspected cases and an additional Rs 3,000 for a confirmation test. However, ICMR encourages free or subsidised testing in this hour of a national public health emergency.

Further, an ICMR spokesperson informed that presently there are 60 plus ICMR approved private laboratories conducting the COVID-19 test in the country. And as per our ICMR guidelines for conducting COVID-19 test, 22 government labs are in the process of quality upgradation.

The interim order also mentions that COVID-19 test must be carried out in NABL-accreditated laboratories or any agencies approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or ICMR.

[email protected]