We got "fired" by our doctor Monday because we questioned why they had billed my wife Frs 151 for a COVID-19 antibody test some months back when they had promised to do it at cost -- roughly Frs 65.

None of the antibodies tests were covered by insurance a few months back and our doctor's office had originally quoted 200, my wife had complained that this seemed excessive given we knew my colleague's doctor was charging 47 lab fees + 18 for taking the blood. She had then booked it with that colleague's doctor, then our doctor called back (we guess the one doctor called the other) apologized, said it was a secretarial mistake, and assured us they would also do it at cost.

Fast forward a month, and we received a bill totalling 151. When we emailed to ask about it, especially in reference to the doctor's apologetic phone conversation with my wife, they wrote back and said they could not be our doctor anymore.

It's not a huge amount of money, but it feels like very lame behaviour.

Also: any recommendations for good doctors in Lugano? English not necessary.

Doctors and lawyers are not allowed to terminate the working relationship with their patient or client at inappropriate times. For a doctor, this might be, for example, half-way through surgery, for a lawyer, it could be before a court deadline. At all other times, the doctor or lawyer is free to end the working relationship.

As I see it, while you may, perhaps, have grounds for disputing the bill (although, even then, you'd need to know all the items on the bill, and there may be extra, related charges, besides the test itself) there are no grounds for a complaint about the doctor ending the professional relationship.

To answer your question, yes there is an organization that focuses patient's rights, a patient's Ombudstelle:
https://www.spo.ch

However - to be blunt, making a complaint about a doctor for anything other than extreme, obvious and legally provable errors of medical practice resulting in life-changing harm to the patient is often a road to nowhere in Switzerland. (And even in cases of extreme, obvious and legally provable errors of medical practice resulting in life-changing harm to the patient, a patient's complaint is rarely successful.) Frustrating as it can be, things are unlikely to change anytime soon.

My take: Don't waste your time and energy. Move on, find a new doctor.

On 24th June 2020, some of the Federal Council's rules about Covid-19 tests were changed. Some previous rules were ended, and the conditions under which the costs would be covered, and to what extent, were regulated.

Although I haven't studied it in detail, it seems to me possible that this might have had an effect on the costs charged for testing, in particular if the test was performed before or after these rules were changed.

https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home...sicherung.html