Public Health Expert Dr. Gagandeep Kang Calls for Rational Economic Assessment of Healthcare Delivery Costs

Public health expert and adjunct professor Dr. Gagandeep Kang has called for a rationally designed exercise to assess the true costs of delivering medical care across healthcare facilities. Her remarks address growing industry and regulatory concerns regarding healthcare pricing and operational transparency in India.

The discussion around healthcare costs gained momentum following a recent parliamentary panel report. The report red-flagged medical bills at private hospitals, noting that they can sometimes be five to six times higher than costs at government-run facilities.

While acknowledging that compliance is inherently more expensive for private institutions, Dr. Kang emphasized that meeting the costs of compliance and delivering care that is cost-effective are two distinct matters. She pointed to accreditation standards outlined by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) as a potential minimum starting point for baseline expectations regarding cost and available services.

Drawing on her experience at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, where she serves as an adjunct professor, Dr. Kang cited the institution's cost accounting approach. She explained that understanding healthcare expenses requires breaking down every operational element involved in patient care, ranging from bed allocation and doctor consultation time to utility expenses and drug costs, rather than solely looking at pharmaceutical charges.

Dr. Kang suggested that institutions such as business schools, health management institutes, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) could be tasked with conducting these economic assessments. She proposed that such exercises be repeated every five years across all types of healthcare facilities, factoring in a reasonable profit margin of around 10 percent.

According to Dr. Kang, establishing a transparent data source on actual costs would help build greater public trust in the healthcare system by providing clarity on price breakdowns. Furthermore, she emphasized the need to design healthcare facilities around the practical needs of the population, suggesting measures such as evening clinic operations in rural areas to prevent patients from losing working days to access medical care.

"Dr. Gagandeep Kang’s call for structured cost accounting in healthcare highlights a critical need for financial transparency and operational efficiency. In any service-driven sector, understanding the granular breakdown of delivery costs is essential for sustainable pricing and building consumer trust. For healthcare providers, adopting rigorous economic assessments can bridge the gap between compliance expenses and affordable care, ultimately creating a more balanced and predictable market ecosystem." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes