OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2012. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against the Legislative Assembly of St Petersburg upon signs of violating Clause 8 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

2012 regional state guarantee programme for free health care for the population in St Petersburg, approved by No. 800-147 Law of St Petersburg of 6th December 2011, establishes different tariff structures for payment for medical care provided by private and public health care organizations. Fixing different tariff structure for medical care on the basis of the form of ownership of medical organizations knowingly put private medical organizations in a disadvantageous position. Such organizations cannot leave the market for a year and at the same time cannot refuse providing medical aid to the insured persons. The provisions of the regional programme can reduce the number of economic actions on the market of mandatory medical insurance services.

Thus, FAS suspects that actions of the Legislative Assembly of St Petersburg have signs of violating Clause 8 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”: creating discriminatory conditions for private medical organizations in St Petersburg.

Reference:

Mandatory medical insurance in the Russian Federation is exercised in accordance with mandatory medical insurance. The framework mandatory medical insurance programme is an integral part of the state guarantee programme for free health care for the population, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. The programme has a direct effect on the entire territory of the Russian Federation. The programme establishes unified requirements to the regional programs of mandatory medical insurance and determines the tariff structure for medical care payment. A regional programme of mandatory medical insurance is formed by a constituent territory of the Russian Federation.

The norms of the law of the Russian Federation on mandatory medical insurance do allow the authorities to independently change the tariff structure based on the organizational legal form and the form of ownership of a medical organization.