AI in medical practices in Austria and Switzerland: what applies with ÖGK and TARDOC?

What applies to AI in an Austrian medical practice?

• Confidentiality: Doctors and their auxiliary staff must keep secret everything entrusted to them or that comes to their knowledge in the course of their profession (§ 54(1) Physicians Act 1998, Ärztegesetz). An AI provider that receives patient data must therefore be contractually bound to confidentiality.
• Data protection: The GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act apply. Health data are special categories (Art. 9 GDPR); a data processing agreement with the provider is required (Art. 28 GDPR).
• ELGA: Health data from ELGA (the Austrian electronic health record) may only be processed for the specific treatment (§ 14 GTelG 2012, the Health Telematics Act). More on this: Austria: ELGA and AI access.
• AI Act: As an EU member state, Austria is subject to the EU AI Act, including AI literacy under Art. 4 and transparency under Art. 50 when an AI itself talks to patients.

What does ÖGK billing mean for AI tools?

Doctors with a health insurance contract bill the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) under the overall contract and the fee schedule of their federal state. There is no uniform nationwide overall contract; the nine fee schedules differ in services, tariffs and limits. In addition, there is a basic fee per case and quarter and individual services with their own tariff.

For an AI tool, this means: it must know the fee schedule of your federal state in its current version. A tool built for the German EBM (the German statutory fee schedule) does not help in an Austrian practice. Ask the provider which fee schedules it covers and how quickly new tariff agreements are incorporated.

What applies to AI in a Swiss medical practice?

• Professional secrecy: Doctors and their auxiliary staff are subject to Art. 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code (StGB). An AI provider can be involved as an auxiliary person if it is contractually bound to secrecy. More on this: Professional secrecy in Switzerland.
• Data protection: The revised Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP, DSG) applies. A provider processes data on behalf of the practice under Art. 9 FADP. Data may go to countries with adequate data protection, which include Germany (Annex 1 DPO). AI and the Swiss Data Protection Act →
• AI act: As of October 2026, Switzerland has no AI act of its own.

What does TARDOC change for AI tools?

Since 1 January 2026, Swiss practices have billed outpatient medical services under TARDOC, which replaces TARMED. Alongside it there are outpatient flat rates, which initially concern mainly treatments in hospitals; a single bill uses either TARDOC or a flat rate, mixed billing is not permitted. TARDOC values each service in tax points, separately for the medical service and for infrastructure and staff; the value of a tax point in francs differs from canton to canton. The Federal Council approved the tariff system on 30 April 2025 for a limited period of three years and approved adjustments in November 2025.

For an AI tool, this means:

• Version: Ask which TARDOC version the tool works with; further adjustments follow after its introduction.
• Changeover: Hints that are still based on TARMED items have been wrong since 2026.
• Responsibility: As in Germany and Austria, the practice decides what is billed and is responsible for it.

Not legal advice: This article gives an overview of Austria and Switzerland. Regional and cantonal law, professional rules and contracts may differ. The authoritative sources are RIS and Fedlex in their current versions and advice from your medical chamber or your legal adviser. Research as of: 11 October 2026.

How does this work with basebox?

basebox offers the AI platform in Austria and Switzerland, as a cloud and as a server. The cloud runs in our data centre in Germany; each organisation gets its own environment, separated from other customers. A data centre in Switzerland for the cloud is in progress, by 2027 at the latest. Our hardware partner FAST LTA also delivers the server to Switzerland, where it then stands on your premises. Your data do not train any model. The interface and support are available in German and English.

For Swiss customers there is a supplement to the DPA under the FADP and a confidentiality agreement under Art. 321 and Art. 320 of the Swiss Criminal Code, both as drafts to download at /sicherheit#sec-schweiz. basebox is not connected to ELGA or to the Swiss electronic patient record (EPD). There is no ready-made connector for practice management systems; if the vendor provides an interface, a connection is possible as a separate connector at a fixed price. Questions about the fee schedule or TARDOC are answered by basebox from the documents you store in an app.