Checklist & practical tips for the FOPH Analysis List

For handling laboratory analyses in your practice effectively and economically.

The following list is based on the current FOPH Analysis List from 01 July 2025. We encourage you to download the full list from the official FOPH website as an Excel file and to review the following points for you and your medical practice. The details provided here are intended as a practical guide and do not claim to be comprehensive.

Billing & prerequisites

• Check each analysis you perform in your clinic to determine whether it is included under “Rapid analysis” in Column AB. Do this by opening the column drop-down menu and setting the filter to “Yes”. This will result in a list of all analyses that you can generally perform and bill for in your clinic laboratory.
• You may also set this filter to “No” and set the filter in Column Z – “Praxislaboratorium eines Arztes/ einer Ärztin (für Eigenbedarf)” to “Yes”. You will now see additional analyses for which you can be compensated, such as a chemical test for albumin or drug screening in urine. Here you can also include “TP 4707.10 for any analysis bearing suffix C” and “TP 4707.20 for any analysis not bearing suffix C” on your invoices.
• Only physicians with an appropriate specialist title may bill for sodium, calcium, phosphate, TSH and, for example, fT4. If you have a specialist title, Columns AC to AM allow you to filter results accordingly.
• Contrary to popular belief, chloride is not approved for billing.
• In addition, any physicians ordering analyses in their clinic laboratory must have completed the FAPL course on proper medical laboratory operations.
• All invoiced analyses also require participation in external quality control studies (round-robin tests). As of 01 July 2025, this also includes participation in external quality control studies for occult blood.

Limitations – Column I

• Certain analyses may only be performed in specific clinical situations.
• The limitation for TP 1576.01 NT-proBNP reads as follows: “For assessing acute shortness of breath to rule out acute or chronic heart failure; not to be used for monitoring treatment”.
• This may be presented as justification in the event of questions from cost centres.

Cumulative provisions – Column K

• CK and troponin analyses may not be invoiced together.

Monitoring invoices internally

• Use your clinic software to generate regular assessments of invoiced analyses. This will allow you to see which of your clinic’s analysis items were actually invoiced.
• Errors can occur, especially when results are entered manually.
• Errors can also occur when your analysis system transfers results to your clinic’s software; this can happen, for instance, if your software has not been updated when updates are available.
• Pay attention to the final digits of the item number: in most cases, the item should end in .01.
• Obsolete or mismatched items can sometimes find their way in, which can lead to an audit or payment recovery claim.

Organisation & responsibility

• Medical directors bear overall responsibility for correct invoicing, even when information has been entered by clinic assistants.
• Internal quality assurance processes need to be documented: Who reviews round-robin tests? Who monitors the instruments? Are invoices reviewed by two separate individuals?

Always remain up to date

• Updates to the Analysis List do not appear at defined intervals.
• In addition to affecting tariffs, changes also concern indications or methodological requirements (such as with troponin).
• We recommend signing up for the FOPH “Health Insurance Benefits” (only available in German/French) newsletter on FOPH’s official Analysis List webpage in order to stay abreast of relevant updates. 

Additional recommendations from practical experience

• Provide your team with regular training on billing issues, as many errors stem from outdated tariff information.
• Use the Analysis List as a tool – not just as mandatory documentation.
• Keep your knowledge up to date and read the FOPH newsletter to learn about changes early on.

Please do not hesitate to contact your Axonlab customer service representative if you have any questions surrounding the Analysis List. Let our expertise help you to navigate the Analysis List jungle.

 

 

 

 

Source:

Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) (undated) Analysis List: Health Insurance Benefits [Analysenliste: Leistungen der Krankenversicherung]. Downloaded on 26 June 2025 from https://www.bag.admin.ch/de/analysenliste-al