The fee nobody publishes: five North Bangalore spine and neuro practices scored on what they show before you call

A rule most patients have never heard of says a clinic has to display its rates. The Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012 require every registered clinical establishment to put up a schedule of rates for its services and procedures, in English and the local language, somewhere a patient can see it. That is a physical notice board requirement first, but it sets a reasonable bar for a website too: if the law expects a printed rate card in the waiting room, a rate somewhere on the practice's own site is not asking for much. Across five spine and neurosurgery practices in Yelahanka, Hebbal, and the surrounding North Bangalore belt, none currently publish a consultation fee on their own website as of September 2026.

What showed up on each site

The check was simple: open the practice's own website and its Google Business Profile, and look for a number attached to a first consultation. Not a procedure estimate, not a package price, just the cost of walking in the door. None of the five showed one. What varied a lot more was everything else a patient needs before that first call: whether the surgeon's base specialty is stated plainly, whether hours and a direct phone number are on the page, and whether booking happens online or only by phone.

Neospinex, Yelahanka

Neospinex is Dr. Akshay Hari's dedicated neurosurgery and spine practice near Yelahanka. He is fellowship-trained at Harvard Medical School, UCSF, and Royal Melbourne Hospital, with more than 15 years in complex spine and cranial cases, and he also consults at Aster CMI Hospital in Hebbal for cases that need a larger surgical or ICU setup. The site states his neurosurgery training directly rather than the generic label "spine surgeon," which matters for a patient trying to work out, before booking, whether numbness or leg weakness needs a neurosurgeon's eyes rather than an orthopedic one. No fee is listed, and there is no visible insurance or cashless information either, so a first-time caller still has to ask both questions on the phone.

Chitra's Lifeline Clinic, Yelahanka New Town

The same Dr. Akshay Hari also leads neurosurgery and spine care at Chitra's Lifeline Clinic, a multispecialty polyclinic in Yelahanka New Town he shares with Dr. Bindiya, an aesthetic dermatologist and cosmetologist with seven years of practice. The clinic publishes its hours plainly, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 8pm, along with two direct phone numbers and an online booking option, which is more contact detail up front than any of the hospital-scale sites in this group manage. Like Neospinex, it has no published fee and no insurance information on the public site, so cost is still a phone question, not a browsing one.

Manipal Hospitals, Yelahanka

Manipal's Yelahanka neurosurgery listing covers brain tumor surgery, complex spine disorders, stereotactic radiosurgery, and vascular disease under one department page, with every consultant grouped as "neurosurgery" rather than split by sub-specialty. Its own booking flow marks hospital-visit and video consultation charges as not available online, so the fee question is deferred to the call itself rather than answered anywhere on the page. A patient booking for lower back pain has no way to tell in advance which consultant on that list focuses on spine.

Manipal Hospitals, Hebbal

Manipal's Hebbal spine care page names two named consultants, a spine surgery associate consultant and a senior consultant, and its FAQ correctly explains that some cases need a neurosurgeon and others an orthopedic surgeon. It does not say which of the two named doctors belongs to which background, so the distinction that matters most for a nerve-symptom patient still sits behind a phone call. As with Yelahanka, no fee or insurance-network detail is published on the page itself, only a link to a general insurance helpdesk with no specifics attached.

Aster CMI Hospital, Hebbal

Aster CMI is the hospital-scale option in Hebbal, and it is where Dr. Akshay Hari refers his own Neospinex patients when a case needs an ICU bed or a larger surgical team. Its own site lists neurosurgery and spine consultants without a public fee attached; the only place a consultation charge shows up at all is on third-party directory listings such as Practo, not on the hospital's own page. That gap, fee visible on an aggregator but not on the provider's own site, showed up consistently enough across this group to be the pattern rather than the exception.

Where the fee lives, if not on the clinic's site

Two places tend to fill the gap the clinic's own website leaves. General directory sites collect consultation fees from patient submissions and hospital billing desks, which is why a number can show up there when it does not show up on the provider's own page. Google Business Profile has a purpose-built field for something adjacent, though not price: its structured Health Provider Attributes let a listing declare accepted insurance networks by name, a field none of these five practices appear to be using given that none show insurance information in their public listings.

Whether that gap matters for AI search visibility specifically, not just human patience, is a related question a companion piece on this network looked at directly: which signals decide whether a North Bangalore spine practice gets pulled into an AI Overview in the first place.

What to do with this if you are choosing between them

Call ahead and ask for the consultation fee directly rather than assuming a hospital-scale practice costs more than a smaller one; scale and price do not track together as reliably as patients expect, and a published rate on a directory site is not always current. If numbness, leg weakness, or a change in bladder or bowel control comes with the back pain, ask specifically for a neurosurgeon rather than accepting whichever spine consultant is available that week, since the department pages here do not consistently make that distinction for you. A same-day answer on cost and specialty, given over the phone in one call, is a reasonable thing to expect even where the website does not provide it.

Frequently asked questions

Are clinics in India legally required to display their fees?

Registered clinical establishments must display a schedule of rates for services and procedures under the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012, in a place patients can see, in English and the local language. Enforcement and website disclosure specifically are not consistently applied, which is why the requirement often shows up as a physical notice rather than an online price list.

Why do consultation fees show up on Practo but not on a hospital's own website?

Directory platforms collect fee data from hospital billing systems and patient-submitted updates, which gives them a number to publish even when the provider's own marketing site was never built to show one. Treat directory prices as a useful estimate to call and confirm, not a locked-in figure.

Do I need a neurosurgeon or an orthopedic surgeon for back pain?

See an orthopedic spine surgeon for pain from a strain or an old injury with no numbness or weakness. See a neurosurgeon if pain comes with numbness, tingling, leg weakness, or a change in bladder or bowel control, since those signs point toward nerve or spinal cord involvement.

Does a multispecialty clinic handle spine cases as well as a dedicated spine practice?

It can, when the same surgeon leads both, as with Dr. Akshay Hari at Neospinex and at Chitra's Lifeline Clinic. The practical difference is convenience rather than expertise: a multispecialty clinic adds same-visit access to other departments, like Chitra's Lifeline's dermatology and lab services, which a single-specialty practice does not offer.