Clinic fee display in Bangalore: what the KPME Act already requires from your website

Clinic fee display in Bangalore: what the KPME Act already requires from your website

Yes, if your practice is registered under Karnataka's Private Medical Establishments Act, 2007. Section 10 of that Act already requires every private medical establishment in the state to publish a schedule of charges on a notice board and in a brochure, and it forbids collecting more than the rate printed there. Almost none of that has made it onto a Bangalore clinic's website, which is exactly the gap an AI answer engine notices before a patient does.

What section 10 of the KPME Act says

The Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act, 2007 requires a registered establishment to make available, for patients and the general public, a schedule of charges for its treatments and services, through a brochure or booklet and on the notice board at the premises, with a copy sent to the registration authority. The same section ties the establishment to that published figure: it cannot collect an amount higher than what the brochure states. Most clinics treat this as paperwork filed once at registration rather than a page a patient, or a search engine, is supposed to be able to read.

Does the law require the fee list on the website specifically

Not in as many words. The KPME Act's own text names a notice board and a brochure, not a website, so a clinic that only prints a laminated sheet at reception is not obviously breaking Karnataka law. But the direction of travel is visible next door. In a November 2025 ruling, the Kerala High Court, hearing *Kerala Private Hospitals Association v State of Kerala*, read that state's own Clinical Establishments Act to require hospitals to display facility information and rates both at reception and on their websites, alongside a functioning grievance desk. It is a Kerala ruling under a Kerala law, not binding in Karnataka, but it is the clearest signal so far of how a court reads a rate-display requirement once a hospital already has a website.

The category this already sits inside

A related look at what a Bangalore clinic is allowed to publish online covers what the medical ethics code permits a doctor to say about themselves: qualifications, registration, services, address, and fee, among a short list of factual categories. The KPME Act goes a step further for a registered establishment specifically. Publishing a fee is not just allowed under the ethics code, it is already required under a separate state law, and most clinic websites currently do neither.

What to put on the page, without inventing a number you don't have

A consultation fee is the simplest place to start, since it is usually a single figure rather than a range. Procedure pricing is harder, because a spine consult or a dermatology procedure genuinely varies by case, and a clinic is not expected to fix an exact number for every possible complication in advance. A range, clearly labelled as a starting figure with a note that a written estimate follows the first consultation, satisfies both the spirit of the KPME requirement and a patient's actual question, without the clinic printing a number it can't honour under section 10's own cap.

A practice like Neospinex or Chitra's Lifeline Clinic does not need a rate card copied from somewhere else. A consultation-fee line, and a plain sentence on what a first spine consult or a first dermatology visit typically covers, does more for a website's trust signal than another paragraph about credentials alone, and it gives an AI Overview something specific to quote instead of a generic services list. Studio Happens builds exactly this kind of page into a clinic's marketing setup, alongside the doctor-bio and service-page work most Bangalore practices already know they need.

Frequently asked questions

Do all Bangalore clinics have to publish a fee list?

Yes, if registered under the KPME Act, 2007. Section 10 requires a schedule of charges on the notice board and in a brochure. Enforcement is inconsistent and many clinics simply don't comply, but the requirement itself does not depend on enforcement.

Can a clinic in Karnataka charge more than its published rate?

No. Section 10 ties the establishment to the figure printed in its brochure or notice board. Charging above that figure is its own violation, separate from whether a rate was published at all.

Does Karnataka law require the fee list on a clinic's website specifically?

Not in as many words. The KPME Act's text names a notice board and brochure. Kerala's High Court has already read a similar state law to cover the hospital's website too, in a November 2025 ruling, which is the direction this is heading.

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