What is Tardoc?

Why Tarmed was replaced

Tarmed (Tarif médical) was introduced in 2004 as the first national fee schedule for outpatient medical services in Switzerland. Before Tarmed, each canton had its own system. Tarmed unified billing but was designed for the technology and medical practice patterns of the early 2000s.

Over two decades, medicine changed significantly: new procedures, new technologies, shifting time requirements, and different clinical workflows. Tarmed's point values no longer accurately reflected the real cost and time of many modern medical services — some procedures were overvalued, others significantly undervalued. This distorted incentives and created inefficiencies in the system.

What is Tardoc?

Tardoc (Tarif des médecins et prestations médicales en cabinet / Ärztetarif) is the updated fee schedule developed by curafutura and the FMH (Swiss Medical Association) over several years. It is a revised point system that:

• More accurately reflects the time, complexity, and resources required for modern medical services
• Introduces updated billing codes for procedures and technologies that did not exist in 2004
• Maintains the basic structure (AL + TL components, cantonal point values) that Tarmed uses
• Is cost-neutral at the system level — it is designed not to increase or decrease the total spend on outpatient care, just to redistribute it more accurately

When did Tardoc take effect?

Tardoc received Federal Council approval and took full effect in 2025, replacing Tarmed as the national outpatient fee schedule. The rollout is now complete across all cantons and insurer groups.

Some very old pending invoices from the transition period may still carry Tarmed codes, but all new billing uses Tardoc.

What changed for patients?

For the vast majority of patients, the transition to Tardoc was largely invisible. The billing happens between providers and insurers — you still receive an itemised invoice, submit it to your insurer, and pay your franchise and Selbstbehalt. The overall cost to the system remained neutral.

In practice:

• Some consultations that were previously billed at a higher rate now cost slightly less; others increased marginally.
• Procedures that were undervalued under Tarmed (e.g. complex geriatric assessments, multi-problem consultations) are now more accurately compensated — which has slightly reduced the pressure on doctors to speed through appointments.
• New procedure codes mean that some services that were previously billed under catch-all codes now have their own specific position — invoices may appear more detailed.

Who negotiates Tardoc?

Medical tariffs in Switzerland are negotiated between:

• FMH (Verbindung der Schweizer Ärztinnen und Ärzte) — representing doctors
• curafutura — an alliance of major KVG insurers
• santésuisse — another insurer association, which has had a separate negotiation track
• The Federal Council — ultimately approves and sets the tariff when negotiations fail or are contested

This tripartite negotiation reflects the complexity of Swiss healthcare governance — medical billing is not set unilaterally by the government or by insurers, but through a structured negotiation process with appeals mechanisms.