(Roman Urdu video script +) State its Shariah ruling — and then, in a separate follow-up, the practical method was also asked about.

The service of medical coding and billing, and its wage, are in principle permissible and halal — "ijarah 'ala al-a'mal" (a wage for lawful labour and skill).

The reality: Converting the details of a patient's illness, diagnosis and treatment into international codes (ICD, CPT, HCPCS), preparing a bill and sending it to the insurance company — purely administrative/technical/clerical work, with no direct connection to the medical decision.

Reasons for permissibility: A wage for a lawful skill (not interest, not gambling, not the sale of something haram); a mutual contract (ijarah); if done honestly, there is no Shariah defect in it.

Cautions: (1) Fraud and lying are haram — writing an inflated code, coding an illness/treatment that did not take place, taking money by deceiving the insurance company is haram, and the income is also haram; (2) Wrong information entering the patient's record through wrong coding can be harmful for future treatment — betrayal of trust is forbidden; (3) Relation to insurance: if in some system the insurance is explicitly based on interest/gambling, caution is needed from that aspect, but the basic act of coding/billing is in any case permissible.

Summary: With complete honesty and accuracy, this work is permissible and halal; if fraud is included, it is haram.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.