Social service customer fees

The fees for social services can be found in the service descriptions. 

Patient fees 

Payment table for health care services 2021 (pdf)

Patient fees are determined in accordance with the Act and Decree on Client Fees for Social Welfare and Health Care. In the future there will be index adjustments to the fees every other year.

These regulations specify:

• certain health services free of charge
• services for which fees can be charged
• the maximum amount of patient fees to be charged

The municipality decides independently if a fee is charged for a certain service or not, and if it is charged, whether it will be the maximum fee allowed. The decisions on the patient fees are made by the Health Committee in accordance with the instructions given separately by the City Board if needed. The City Council decides on the introduction or elimination of a health care patient fee which is important financially or in principle.

Except for the health centre fee, Helsinki currently charges a fee for all those health services deemed chargeable under the Act and Decree. The maximum fees are applied.

The patient fees are either fixed or means tested 

• Fixed-rate fees are those charged at the same rate to all patients (such as outpatient clinic fees).
• The means tested fees vary from patient to patient, and are based on the total combined regular income of the patient, or patient and his or her spouse, after certain deductions have been made. The patient’s ability to pay determines the fees for long-term institutional care and continuous home nursing.

The real costs incurred by medical care in both hospitals and at local health stations are much higher than the fees charged to the patients. Most of the medical care expenses are covered by tax revenues.

Additional information about patient fees is available in the payment table for health care services and from the health care units.

Reduction or non-recovery of client fees

Dissatisfaction with client fees