Exchanging surplus medicines dispensed under health insurance

A question from an employee left with surplus medicine dispensed under health insurance, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that the rules for dispensing medicine must be kept and the prescription not altered, but that if medicine was dispensed lawfully for a real illness without deception, it may be sold, given away or exchanged once received. ¹

The questioner said he works for a private company that provides staff health insurance, and that he is sometimes left with medicine from a prescription, or medicines he did not use; he asked whether he may exchange them at the pharmacy for other medicines or non-medical items of the same value. ¹

The Department answered that health insurance is a contract between the beneficiary and the insurer, through which care is provided to him and to those named in the contract, and that the rules regulating the dispensing of medicines must be kept. ¹ It said the principle is that medicine is dispensed only to the beneficiary according to the doctor's prescription, and he may not alter the prescription even if he does not need the medicine. ¹ It concluded that if the treatment was dispensed lawfully and as the treating doctor prescribed, without deception, and the illness genuinely required it, there is no objection to disposing of it once received, by sale, gift or exchange, since ownership passes to the beneficiary once it is dispensed in line with the insurance contract's terms. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3878, dated 21 May 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.