Jul 31, 2026

Why digital billing pays off even more now

Since June 2026, cost bearers charge CHF 3.– for every paper invoice in occupational therapy. What digital billing via MediData really saves.

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Therapist entering invoices on a laptop in her practice office

What changes as of 1 June 2026

Since 1 June 2026, cost bearers may pass on a fee of CHF 3.– for every paper invoice issued by occupational therapists. It applies to each paper invoice sent, regardless of its amount. The change was announced in the newsletter of the occupational therapy association EVS of 25 March 2026.

For a practice sending 50 invoices a month, that alone comes to CHF 1,800 a year – without a single additional treatment being delivered.

The fee does not stand on its own. It is part of a development that has been building in Swiss healthcare for years: cost bearers process invoices increasingly automatically, and every paper invoice first has to be scanned and entered by hand. They are now passing that effort on. Anyone who has postponed the switch to electronic transmission will feel it immediately in their billing – and for many practices this is a good moment to do the maths on their own processes.

What does a paper invoice really cost?

Considerably more than the new fee. Adding up paper, printing, envelope, postage and the effort for preparation, checking, dispatch and filing, the cost per invoice including the patient copy comes to roughly CHF 8 to 9.50. The CHF 3.– fee accounts for only about a third of that.

Invoice to the cost bearer

  • Paper and printing: approx. CHF 0.15
  • Envelope: approx. CHF 0.10
  • Postage: approx. CHF 1.20
  • Administrative effort: approx. CHF 1.50 to 2.50
  • New cost bearer fee: CHF 3.00

Copy for patients

If the copy is also sent by post, the material cost is incurred a second time:

  • Paper and printing: approx. CHF 0.15
  • Envelope: approx. CHF 0.10
  • Postage: approx. CHF 1.20
  • Processing and dispatch: approx. CHF 0.50 to 1.00

That adds up to roughly CHF 8.– to 9.50 per invoice including the copy. At 50 invoices a month, that is about CHF 4,700 to 5,700 a year. The largest item is not postage but working time: every invoice has to be prepared, checked, put in an envelope, sent, filed and found again whenever questions arise. Anyone already working with tariff 338 knows the effort of separate billing channels.

What the digital alternative costs

Set against this are the costs of digital billing. They vary by provider, but the order of magnitude is comparable:

  • Practice software, with xatlaMed: CHF 39.– per user and month
  • MediData subscription: CHF 5.– per month
  • Paper, printing, envelopes and postage: no longer apply
  • Digital archiving: included in the system
  • Fully digital patient copy (optional): CHF 0.25 per delivery

For the same practice with 50 invoices a month, that comes to around CHF 530 a year, or just under 680 with fully digital delivery of copies. And practice software covers far more than billing alone – scheduling, documentation and patient administration are included as well.

More control over the invoicing process

Besides the cost, traceability speaks for the digital route. With postal dispatch, control ends at the letterbox. Digitally, the following can be answered at any time:

  • When was the invoice transmitted?
  • Has it reached the cost bearer?
  • Are there rejections or queries?

This creates transparency and shortens the time until payment arrives, because errors surface early instead of only with the reminder. A rejected paper invoice often only makes itself known weeks later – by which time the case has long dropped out of sight in everyday practice and has to be reconstructed laboriously. Digitally, the rejection appears together with its reason directly in the system and can be corrected the same day.

Then there is filing. A digital invoice can be found in seconds by name, date or invoice number. With paper filing, the same search means a trip to the folder – and assumes the invoice was filed correctly back then.

Digital billing via MediData

In Swiss healthcare, MediData has established itself as the standard for electronic invoice transmission. Via the MediData network, invoices are transmitted encrypted from the practice software to the cost bearers. The patient copy can be delivered through it as well, in two variants.

Digital delivery with post as a fallback

By default, the copy is made available digitally. If the patient does not open it, MediData automatically delivers it by post. You do not have to follow anything up and can be sure the copy arrives.

Fully digital delivery

With an upgrade, delivery runs exclusively digitally, at CHF 0.25 per copy. Printing and postal dispatch are then eliminated entirely.

What practices should do now

The switch can be planned in a few steps:

  1. Determine your invoice volume. Count how many paper invoices you send per month and multiply by the costs above. Only that figure makes the decision tangible.
  2. Take out a MediData subscription. Registration runs through MediData itself. Have your ZSR and GLN numbers ready – both are required to identify you to the cost bearers.
  3. Check your practice software. What matters is a direct interface to the MediData network. Without it, a manual intermediate step remains that eats up part of the saving again.
  4. Start with a test invoice. Transmit individual invoices electronically first and check the responses before switching over completely.
  5. Inform your patients. A brief note that the invoice copy will be delivered digitally in future prevents queries.

The setup effort is a one-off, the saving recurs every month.

With xatlaMed, without intermediate steps

xatlaMed has a direct interface to the MediData network. Invoices and patient copies leave the software without export, intermediate program or manual upload. For occupational therapy practices the interface is included in the subscription – all that is added is the MediData subscription.

Conclusion

Taken on its own, the new fee on paper invoices is manageable. What it does is make visible what the paper-based route already costs anyway: materials, postage and above all working time. Practices that switch now save not only money but gain time for what they are actually there for – working with their patients.

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