With several states managing to bring down the cost of RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 to about half the Rs 4,500 ceiling fixed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), the cries to revise the price have become louder.
The fact that some private labs are offering package deals of 50 or more tests, including the Covid-19 test, for just Rs 5,000 has also buttressed the argument that the ICMR cap may be too generous.
In many states, as the number of Covid-19 tests being done in private labs has gone up, governments have announced the reimbursement rate they pay private labs for samples sent to them. It ranges from as little as Rs 2,000 in Gujarat to Rs 3,500 in Haryana.
However, for those getting tested in hospitals and for those paying for the test themselves in a lab, the cost is Rs 4,500, the ceiling fixed by the ICMR. The Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and a similar scheme for the Delhi government employees also continue to observe the Rs 4,500 price ceiling.
Though the ICMR had appealed to private labs to test for free when announcing the price ceiling and giving ap
