Prices of cardiac stents and knee implants reduced by 50 to 70%”
A government price cap on stents and artificial knee implants comes at a time of rising demand for cardiac disease and knee-replacement surgery. But the price caps could deter companies from selling the latest, mostly imported technology, prices of stents may not fall as steeply as the government claims, and hospitals could increase "incidental expenses"–from operation theatre charges to surgeon fees –to compensate, according to a FactChecker analysis. [...] Chemicals minister Anant Kumar tweeted that knee-implant prices have been reduced 65%, from a range of Rs 54,720 to Rs 113,950–implants come in many varieties–to a range of Rs 158,324 to Rs 900,000. While the knee-implant price cap was "a great move", Nilen Shah, consultant orthopedic surgeon at Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospitals, said it was misleading to claim prices would drop 40% or 60% because implants are never sold at maximum retail price but always at a discount.