India's new government vows clampdown on healthcare graft

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India's new government vows clampdown on healthcare graft

By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's health minister called for tougher laws on Tuesday after a media report alleged that laboratories had offered kickbacks to doctors who referred patients to their diagnostic centers. Harsh Vardhan has lashed out several times in recent days against bribery in the $74 billion healthcare sector, signaling that the new government will make tackling the corruption that blighted the outgoing administration a priority. An undercover investigation by Hindi news channel News Nation that ran on Monday showed footage purportedly of reputed private laboratories offering commissions as high as 50 percent to doctors who referred patients to their diagnostic centers. With about 40,000 laboratories in India, the diagnostic market is the fastest growing segment of India's healthcare industry, according to PwC, with the segment forecast to grow to $17 billion by 2021 from $3.4 billion in 2011.

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