Private hospital rooms should not exceed three-star hotel rates: PanelA parliamentary committee has recommended benchmarking private hospital room charges in metropolitan cities against nearby three-star hotel tariffs. The panel recommended making the three-star hotel tariff benchmark mandatory for all private hospitals in large metropolitan cities. The committee noted that households continue to face significant financial stress while accessing private healthcare, with average out-of-pocket expenditure per hospitalisation episode pegged at Rs 34,064. The panel recommended eliminating room-rent-linked inflation models for standard procedures across private hospitals and putting in place standardised treatment guidelines and mechanisms to cap arbitrary price variations. Private empanelled hospitals should also adopt transparent, tender-based procurement and cap mark-ups on life-saving consumables and devices, it said.