According to some cardiologists, when it comes to big corporate hospitals or hospital chains, the stent companies directly strike deals with the hospital on pricing. Stent companies, especially foreign ones, do not like to be caught indulging in unethical marketing practices that, if discovered, they would be liable for prosecution. A lady waiting outside catheterization laboratory was asked to decide quickly by doctors whether they should go ahead with stenting for her 90-year-old father costing Rs 2.6 lakh.
Her father was in the catheterization lab for angiography, the stenting could be done right then without bringing him to the lab again to undergo the procedure required for stent implantation, largely similar to the procedure for angiography. This happened at a prominent South Delhi hospital, part of a large chain. Despite the pressure to decide immediately, she sought time to…
