Client and patient fees

List of client and patient fees

The list of client and patient fees in the Wellbeing Services County of Central Ostrobothnia Soite includes the wellbeing services county’s client fees for all of its departments:

For legislative reasons, client fees still have to be decided on separately for specialised and primary services that are based on functional integration.

In addition to the regulations on client and patient fees, the following limitations apply:

1. For veterans with a service badge awarded to front veterans, all non-institutional social welfare and outpatient health care services organised by Soite, as well as any medical statements, are free of charge. Technical dental care costs are not included in the exemption, with the exception of the cost of repairing dental prostheses.
2. Recipients of long-term basic social assistance (a continuous decision of at least 3 months, i.e. a decision by Kela on social assistance for more than 3 months) and recipients of guarantee pension (Kela’s decision on guarantee pension) as well as persons in debt adjustment (District Court decision confirming the payment scheme).
   
   Technical dental care costs are not included in the exemption, with the exception of the cost of repairing dental prostheses. The decision must always be presented when coming to an appointment.
   
   An exemption from payment may be granted retrospectively if the client presents, within 60 days from the issue date of the invoice, a valid decision entitling them to exemption from payment. The decision must be valid at the time of the appointment. This applies to invoices dated 1st of June 2026 or later. However, after an invoice has been sent, recipients of social assistance who can apply to Kela for reimbursement for the invoice, are no longer eligible for exemption from payment.
   
   With a valid decision, you are exempt from paying Soite’s fixed health care fees that include:
   • doctor’s appointments and dental care fees
   • fees for temporary home nursing or temporary home visits carried out by another health care professional
   • hospital outpatient clinic fees
   • fees for medical statements related to treatment
   • fees for physiotherapy in public health care
3. Personal allowance in long-term institutional care: the personal allowance left for personal use is at least 131 euros. In long-term 24-hour service housing and long-term family care, the personal allowance left for personal use is at least 195 euros.
4. The annual upper limit on health care fees (in Finnish “maksukatto”) is 815 euros.
5. A client or patient fee is charged for all days of care when a period of care lasts several days, including the day of arrival and the day of discharge.  No fee is charged, however, for the day of discharge if treatment continues on the same day in another of Soite’s units or in another care facility. For periods of care that last less than 12 hours, a fee is charged for one day if the patient has arrived on the ward after 10 pm and is discharged the following day before 12 noon.
6. Fees for remote services. If no separate fee has been specified in the price list for a remote service, the client fee specified in the price list for a physical visit is also charged for a service that is provided remotely. If a service is free of charge according to the price list, it is also free of charge when provided remotely. Digital services count towards the annual upper limit on health care fees in the same way as services based on in-person appointments.
7. Failure to attend or cancel an appointment or reserved period of care. If a client has booked an appointment in health care services or a short-term care or housing service and, without an acceptable reason or without cancelling in advance, fails to attend the appointment or fails to arrive at the relevant unit at the booked time, the wellbeing services county has the right to charge the client a fee of 73.70 euros. This fee is also charged for visits that would otherwise have been free of charge, as well as for home visits for which a health care professional’s time has been set aside. The fee is not charged to clients under the age of 18.
8. A patient with respiratory paralysis. The compensation paid to a person who is dependent on a ventilator for upkeep not received corresponds to the fee for short-term institutional care.
9. Separately specified services that are free of charge.

The annual upper limit on health care fees (“maksukatto”)

When it comes to the annual upper limit on health care fees, underage children in a family are taken into account in the calculation of one of the guardians’ amounts, based on the guardians’ choice. Each person under the age of 18 is also issued their own parallel card.

When the annual upper limit has been reached, Soite’s patient office (potilastoimisto) informs the client via text message that the limit has been reached. If the client has not permitted text message notifications, the client is sent a letter on paper to inform that the limit has been reached.

Once the annual limit has been reached, this is automatically taken into account in Soite’s invoicing during the rest of the year. The client doesn’t need to do anything. If a client has client fees during the current year from other public health care providers outside of Soite’s area that count towards the annual limit, the client must submit the information about them to Soite’s patient office (potilastoimisto). A so called “free card” (in Finnish “vapaakortti”) may also be requested from Soite’s patient office if needed. A client can take the free card with them if they, for example, use the services of another public health care provider during the current year.

The following fees count towards the annual upper limit on fees:

• fees for doctors’ services in outpatient medical care at health care centres 
• outpatient clinic fees
• day surgery fees
• fees for a series of treatment
• fees for individual physiotherapy
• fees for night and day care
• rehabilitation visit fees
• fee for a day of care in short-term institutional care or on a ward
• fees for short-term care (respite care) in a 24-hour service housing unit
• involuntary special care and a multidisciplinary service decision in 24-hour housing services in disability services
• psychiatric day hospital fee
• home hospital fee

• fees for temporary home nursing
• fees charged in oral and dental care for examination and treatment, excluding technical costs
• fees charged for therapies
• fees paid from social assistance
• fees charged for above-mentioned services that have been provided remotely

When the client presents a free card in public social welfare and health care services after the annual upper limit on costs has been reached, no fee may be charged of the person named on the card for a doctor’s appointment at a health care centre, for an outpatient clinic visit, a series of treatment, individual physiotherapy, night and day care, a home hospital visit or rehabilitation visits. For short-term institutional care/institutional services and day surgery, 26.80 euros is charged per day of care after the annual upper limit of costs has been reached.

Fees that do not count towards the annual upper limit:

• fees for home care and fees for in-home support services
• fees for long-term institutional care
• fees for medical certificates and statements
• fees for ambulance services (pre-hospital emergency care)
• fees for services that were not used and not cancelled
• fees for housing under the Social Welfare Act and the Disability Services Act
• fees for coaching, respite care and short-term care in housing services
• family care fees
• fees based on treatment compensated under the Employment Accidents Insurance Act, Maatalousyrittäjien tapaturmavakuutuslaki (the Farmers’ Employment Accidents Insurance Act), Sotilasvammalaki (the Military Injuries Act), the Motor Liability Insurance Act, the Patient Insurance Act or a corresponding earlier act
• a client’s copayments when using a service voucher
• fees charged for services arranged during an informal caregiver’s statutory leave
• fees for services acquired by a client/patient from a private service provider
• laboratory and imaging examinations carried out on referral from a private doctor
• copayments for transport services
• medicines

The annual maximum limit on out-of-pocket medicine costs is managed through Kela.

Paying an invoice

Soite will send the invoice on paper to your home address if you have not ordered a digital invoice. We recommend choosing an e-invoice or direct payment agreement as the method for receiving your invoices. An e-invoice or direct payment agreement is made with one’s own bank. Soite uses two billing items:

• Keski-Pohjanmaan hyvinvointialue Soite (The Wellbeing Services County of Central Ostrobothnia Soite)
• Keski-Pohjanmaanhyvinvointialue Ensihoito (The Wellbeing Services County of Central Ostrobothnia Ambulance Services)

You can also receive invoices sent by the Wellbeing Services County of Central Ostrobothnia in Omaposti’s digital post service. More information about taking the service into use is available on the service provider’s website.

Request for an administrative review

If your invoice contains a factual or billing error, you can request a change to the invoice. More information about claims for revision:

Possibility of a reduction in client fees

A fee imposed for social welfare services and a fee imposed according to the ability to pay for health care services (long-term institutional care) will not be collected, or may be reduced, if collecting the fee would endanger the means of support of the client or the client’s family or the fulfilment of the client’s statutory maintenance liability (Act on Client Charges, section 11).

E-mail

potilastoimisto(at)soite.fi