Fair compensation: a necessary step to rebalance tariffs

The need to apply fair remuneration for doctors working in freelance relationships and with capital health companies, which can have several benefits, especially in terms of congruous payments of social security contributions, was urged by the Freelance Associations, including Amolp, at the birth of the bill presented by Senator Stefani, promoter of the Bill to extend fair remuneration to all professional relationships

In addition to income security, the sustainability of the social security system, equal treatment, fair contributions, quality of healthcare and the attractiveness of the medical profession are among the most important aspects.

The proposed parliamentary initiative on fair compensation for services rendered by professionals had already become law, No. 49, on 21 April 2023, which was intended to increase their protection in relations with companies that, by nature, size or turnover, are considered to be strong contractors and are therefore capable of determining an imbalance in relations with the individual professional. In particular, the law defined as fair the remuneration that complies with specific ministerial parameters and intervened on the scope of application of the existing discipline, extending it both with regard to the professionals concerned, among whom are included the practitioners of non-ordering professions, and with regard to the client, which is also extended to all companies that employ more than 50 employees or invoice more than 10 million euros, and regulating the nullity of clauses that provide for a remuneration for the professional that is lower than the parameters. It also provided that the professional Orders and Colleges must adopt deontological provisions to sanction professionals who violate the provisions on fair compensation . Some Orders have begun to adapt their codes of conduct to the legislative provisions.

The first to leave were engineers. They were followed by industrial experts and surveyors. Among the last were lawyers and accountants. The ranking points are to have the professionals themselves comply with the criteria and measures, and the need to inform the client of the cost due in a transparent manner.

In the health sector, some professions have become active, such as nurses, the prevention and rehabilitation categories, and psychologists, who despite not having a specific rule in their code emphasise the principle of proportionality between intervention and compensation, and veterinarians. Physicians, on the other hand, appear to be in difficulty. In fact, the sector has experienced difficult conditions. In the past, there has been discussion on the establishment of national ordinarial minimum fee scales. On minimum fees there is a brief digression: they were abolished in 2007 by the Bersani law.