Requiring Patients to Pay Charges Higher than the Rates Approved by the Government

Receiving unusual fees from patients, i.e. charges which are higher that the rate approved by the government, has become a widespread phenomenon. This ever-growing issue has turned into a challenge with which patients and medical community are faced. However, some doctors consider it as an offensive and ugly behavior. According to Islamic jurisprudence, treatment of patients and doing medical work is obligatory in cases of non-sufficiency (if there are enough people to do it, other people do not have the religious duty to do it). So, acquiring fees to do it is permitted based on the rates approved by the Islamic government and enforcing higher charges is forbidden. Investigation of this issue is important not only from a jurisprudential and legal perspective but also from a social aspect since the individuals in the society are faced with this challenge. Requiring higher-than-normal charges from patients is forbidden by the laws of Islam for the following reasons: using capital that has been earned through insufficient work, it is an instance of bribery, it is against the national laws and it creates chaos in the society. There are not any reasons to consider such an act permissible. In addition, it goes against ethics in medicine. This study adopts a descriptive-analytical method to investigate the above-mentioned issue.