Private Hospitals Exploit Nursing Tariff Law; 7 Trillion Rials Ignored
Private hospitals across the country have exploited the implementation of the nursing services tariff law, a long-awaited regulation intended to benefit nurses. Despite charging patients and insurance companies substantial fees, nurses have not been transparently compensated, and this situation continues.
According to Salamat News, quoting Mehr Agency, private hospitals have misused the nursing tariff law, which was approved in summer 2007 (1386 in the Iranian calendar) and was meant to serve nurses’ interests.
Although the law — one of the most important demands of the nursing community — was finally put into effect after years, private hospitals have failed to implement it properly. While these hospitals have collected significant amounts from nursing tariffs, nurses have not received their rightful payments.
Ahmad Nejatian, Head of the Nursing Organization, announced that private hospitals have generated 7 trillion rials in revenue from nursing tariffs during the law’s implementation, yet these funds have not been allocated to nurses.
Details of the Exploitation
Nejatian explained that since the law’s enforcement, private hospitals have collected nursing tariff fees from patients and insurance companies but have either withheld payments from nurses or paid them incompletely and opaquely.
He cited an example of a nurse who should have received between 10 to 12 million tomans monthly from tariffs but was paid only 2 to 3 million tomans.
He added that the 7 trillion rials collected from nursing tariffs in the private sector have yet to be paid to nurses. This amount should be fully allocated to nurses as their legal right.
Proposed Solutions and Collaboration with the Ministries of Labor and Health
The head of the Nursing Organization stated that with active participation from the private sector, guidelines for implementing nursing tariffs in private hospitals have been prepared and finalized. The Ministry of Labor has approved these guidelines and plans to instruct private hospitals to execute the tariffs correctly and transparently.
Nejatian emphasized that any tariff amount paid to hospitals must be fully and fairly distributed to nurses.
Despite the nursing tariff law’s intention to improve working conditions and ensure fair payment for nurses, private hospitals have abused the regulation by collecting large sums and failing to pay nurses their rightful shares. This issue must be urgently addressed, and nurses’ legal rights restored.
