New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- The Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) on Thursday said it has taken note of recent reports highlighting differences between the procurement cost and prices charged to patients for certain medical consumables and products in hospitals.

While affordability and transparency in healthcare are important objectives shared by all stakeholders, the issue needs to be examined in its proper regulatory and administrative context, they said.

Selective examples of price differentials between procurement prices and patient billing prices should not be used to suggest systemic collusion between hospitals and manufacturers or to attribute the setting of Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) to hospitals, they added.

"It...