Glossary
The terms you meet when comparing.
- Analysis list (AL)
- Official federal list of all analyses paid by basic insurance — with tariff points and conditions. Revised twice a year.
- Tariff point (TP)
- The official value of an analysis. For lab analyses one tariff point equals one franc.
- Order fee
- Official position 4700: flat fee per lab order, independent of the number of analyses.
- Limitation
- Official condition stating when an analysis is covered — for instance only for certain diagnoses or at certain intervals.
- Practice lab
- Lab within a doctor’s practice for basic analyses of its own patients.
- Commercial lab
- Large lab analysing on behalf of practices, pharmacies and hospitals.
- Officine
- The public pharmacy.
- Self-payer
- Someone who has an analysis done without a doctor’s order and pays for it themselves.
- Tariff protection
- Health-insurance-act rule making official tariffs binding for covered services. Does not apply to self-payers.
- OKP
- Compulsory health care insurance — the basic insurance.
Source: Swiss federal analysis list (BAG), edition 1 July 2026