Tardoc: Family Doctors’ Anger Is Growing

“That is enough.” The family and pediatric doctors’ association mfe opens its latest statement with a blunt warning. Nine months after Tardoc replaced the long-standing Tarmed system, the group says family medicine has been left behind while outpatient costs continue to rise.

Tardoc was introduced in January with an explicit political aim: to improve pay for primary-care doctors. For the first time, the new tariff structure includes a dedicated section for their work. Yet Sébastien Jotterand, mfe’s co-president, says the reform is failing to deliver. “The intention is there. Everyone, including the tariff partners, agrees that primary care should be valued more. But in practice, we will not achieve that goal.”

The association’s initial feedback indicates that general practitioners have seen no tangible improvement. In some cantons, mfe says, their work has even been devalued. Pediatricians and general practitioners who are not specialists in general internal medicine have recorded moderate increases, but the broader promise to strengthen family medicine remains unfulfilled.

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That is enough.

The dispute comes as costs elsewhere in outpatient care climb sharply. Federal monitoring by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health shows a 10.8% increase in services billed by doctors working in outpatient care between the second quarters of 2025 and 2026. The office cautions that delayed billing during the transition to Tardoc makes the 2026 figures difficult to interpret.

That uncertainty feeds the central concern. The law requires cost neutrality when Tardoc is introduced, and the Federal Council set a 4% threshold. If annual outpatient costs exceed that level, a uniform tariff correction could reduce the revenue of primary-care doctors rather than increase it. mfe is therefore pressing for a targeted adjustment, warning that the current approach could worsen the shortage of general practitioners and discourage future doctors from choosing the specialty.

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The intention is there. Everyone, including the tariff partners, agrees that primary care should be valued more. But in practice, we will not achieve that goal.