Lab giving commission to doctors for patient referral

26-9-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu. I have a medical laboratory in Afghanistan that performs different types of blood, urine and other test for patients. Some doctors ask me to give them a percentage for each patient that they refer to our lab for investigations. Can I give them this percentage without increasing the standard price of the test? Thank you.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

You are not permitted to pay amounts of money to doctors in return for favoritism and referring patients to your laboratory as this is a forbidden bribery. It was confirmed in the hadeeth that ‘Abdullaah ibn ‘Amr related that the Prophet said, “Allaah has cursed the one who gives a bribe and the one who takes it.” [At-Tirmithi: good-authentic]

Also, the fatwa of the Standing Committee for Iftaa reads, “It is not permissible for the owner of the laboratory to give an amount of money to the physician who refers patients to him for blood tests because that is considered forbidden bribery.”

There are obvious aspects of corruption in doing this act, among which are the following: it is a strong cause for the fact that doctors request blood tests from patients without need in order to receive the percentage that is given to them. Also, the doctors may refer patients to the laboratory that gives them a bigger commission even if other laboratories are better and cheaper for the patient. So this is absolutely forbidden in order to prevent such evil taking place.

Allaah knows best.