The Commission on developing St Petersburg Regional Mandatory Medical Insurance Programme must execute a FAS warning

The Cassation Court confirmed the arguments used by the Court of First Instance and Appeal Court and informed the Commission, challenging FAS warning, that it had wrongly interpreted the norms of the procedural law

The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District dismissed the cassation appeal of the Commission on Developing St Petersburg Regional Mandatory Medical Insurance Programme. The Commission attempted to reversethe rulings of Court of First Instance and Appeal Court and invalidate FAS warning. Not being an independent legal entity, the Commission attempted to challenge legitimacy of the warning issued by FAS to eliminate elements of breaching Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The Commission, however, has the right to file a lawsuit or take part in the arbitration proceedings only on behalf of the person that established it, i.e., St Petersburg Government.

According to FAS decision, St Petersburg Government failed to ensure non-discriminatory conditions for allocating high-technology medical care under the mandatory medical insurance programme for St Petersburg and the conditions for rendering such care. Thus the Commission created discriminatory conditions for “CardioClinika” CJSC in comparison with other medical organizations operating on this market.

In April 2016 FAS warned the respondents to the case to eliminate the signs of competition restriction on the market of medical services (Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”). In June 2016 the FAS Commission found that the respondents violated Clause 8 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

“It should be pointed out that such investigations do not take place only at the federal level. The first judicial processes to protect the right of private medical organizations started in the Chelyabinsk region and such process are now being pursued in several other regions”, clarified Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophey Nizhegorodtsev. “To reach the Regional Competition Development Standard on the market of medical services, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, St Petersburg Government and the Commission should devise and adopt a mechanism for allocating the scope of medical care under the frame of St Petersburg Mandatory Medical Insurance Programme in line with the set criteria.  That is the only way to achieve non-discriminatory allocation of high-technology medical care, which, in its turn, will influence availability and the quality of medical care for the population”.