The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has said an advertisement circulating on social media that lists maximum prices for a long run of medical tests is not an official CAA advertisement, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.
The Authority said the public should not assume the prices in that post are ceilings it has prescribed.
What is actually capped — and what is not
This is the substance of the clarification, and it is a narrower list than the viral post implies.
Tests with a gazetted CAA maximum — four in total:
| Test | Maximum charge (including report) | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| Full Blood Count (FBC) | Rs. 400 | Order No. 67, Gazette Extraordinary 2186/17, 29 July 2020 |
| Dengue NS1 Antigen | Rs. 1,200 | Order No. 67, Gazette Extraordinary 2186/17, 29 July 2020 |
| COVID-19 PCR | Rs. 6,500 | Order No. 75, Gazette Extraordinary 2240/30, 12 August 2021 |
| COVID-19 Rapid Antigen (RAT) | Rs. 2,000 | Order No. 75, Gazette Extraordinary 2240/30, 12 August 2021 |
Both orders were made under Section 20(5) of the Consumer Affairs Authority Act.
Tests named in the viral post that carry no CAA maximum: FBS, RBS, HbA1C, Lipid Profile, LFT, RFT, UFR, CRP, CT scans, MRI scans, Ultrasound scans, Mammograms and DEXA scans.
That is thirteen tests with no prescribed ceiling against four with one — and the uncapped list contains the expensive imaging that patients are most likely to shop around for. A patient who walked into a private laboratory holding the viral post and expecting a regulated price for an MRI would have no legal basis for the claim.
Why this particular misinformation lands
The post is plausible precisely because the CAA has been visibly active on medical pricing all year.
The Ministry of Health directed the CAA in July to intensify raids on private hospitals overcharging for FBC tests during the dengue surge — the same Order No. 67 and the same Rs. 400 and Rs. 1,200 figures cited in Saturday’s clarification. That drive followed a Vavuniya private hospital being fined Rs. 500,000 for overcharging on an FBC, and sat alongside fines totalling Rs. 5.8 million across 23 health institutions and 471 pharmacy raids.
A public that has spent months reading about the CAA capping and fining on laboratory prices is primed to believe a list that simply extends the same idea to every test. The Authority’s point is that the enforcement is real but the list is not.
Two COVID-era orders still on the books
The PCR and rapid antigen ceilings were set in August 2021, at the height of the pandemic, and the Daily Mirror reports them as current. Five years on, they remain the operative maximums for those two tests — the CAA cites them in the present tense and gives no indication they have been revised or withdrawn.
What the CAA asks the public to do
The Authority urged consumers to be cautious about sharing or relying on information circulating on social media, and to obtain accurate information from official sources. Further information is available on the CAA hotline 1977 during office hours.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not reproduce the viral advertisement, say what prices it listed, or say where it originated or how widely it spread. It does not say whether the post carried CAA branding or a forged gazette reference — which would make it a different and more serious matter than an unattributed list.
It does not say whether the CAA is investigating who produced it, or whether any enforcement action is contemplated against whoever circulated it.
Nor does the Authority address the more consequential question the clarification raises: whether ceilings are being considered for any of the thirteen uncapped tests, several of which — CT, MRI, mammogram and DEXA — are among the costliest diagnostics a patient pays for out of pocket. The report gives no current price range for any of them.
The clarification is bylined to Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama.
