Court supported FAS demanding St Petersburg authorities to eliminate discrimination within the system of mandatory medical insurance

On 25 January 2017, Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed a claim of St Petersburg Government to abolish the decision and determinations of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia).

St Petersburg Government failed to ensure non-discriminatory conditions for allocating high-technology medical care under the frame of free medical assistance in St Petersburg, as a result of which the Commission for devising a Regional Mandatory Medical Insurance Programme for the city created discriminatory conditions for market participants, including “CardioClinika” CJSC. FAS arrived to this conclusion after investigating a case upon elements of violating Clause 8 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

To support competition, establish a fully-fledged non-discriminatory system of allocating medical care and paying for the services within the free medical insurance system, the antimonopoly body issued a mandatory determination to the city authority and the Commission. St Petersburg Government and the City Commission for Mandatory Medical Insurance failed to execute the determination issued by the Antimonopoly Service and filed a lawsuit challenging the FAS decision and determination at Court. The Court of First Instance disagreed with the arguments put forward by the claimant, supporting the position of the Antimonopoly Service.

“FAS pursues a focused policy towards developing competition in the field of rendering medical care under the frame of mandatory medical insurance. This antimonopoly case is a precedent: not only the FAS Commission determined St Petersburg authorities to fairly allocate the scope and pay for medical assistance under mandatory medical insurance in a particular case, but also devised an allocation and payment mechanism clear to all organizations, based on the norms of the federal law and complying with the objective conditions for performance of the mandatory medical insurance system”, emphasized Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophey Nizhegorodtsev. “Executing these measures will prevent further violations of the antimonopoly law by St Petersburg authorities exercising their powers in the field of mandatory medical insurance. It will form the necessary practice to classify such violations and protect the rights of bona fide entrepreneurs in medical services within the mandatory medical insurance system in other regions, and ultimately create regulatory conditions for executing No.1738/r Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 5 September 2015 on the regional standard for developing competition in terms of increasing the share of private medical institutions within the mandatory medical insurance system”.