FAS issued a warning to Head of Roszdravnadzor

Head of Roszdravnadzor made public statements proposing to increase supervision over private medical facilities

FAS issued warnings to Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Health Care (Roszdravnadzor). Head of Roszdravnadzor made public statements in an article published in Vademecum, proposing for “more and frequent supervision events for private medical establishments”. Such actions by Head of Roszdravnadzor can breach Clause 8 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

Russia is undergoing a control-and-supervision reform, which, in particular, is designed to reduce administrative burden upon business and decrease the number of inspections. The reform is overseen by a minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Abyzov. FAS is actively involved in the project and would like to point out that such actions by Head of Roszdravnadzor can harm the industry and discredit the reform objectives.

The law of the Russian Federation determines that any legal entity regardless of the ownerships form, can exercise medical activity based on a relevant license. Equality of the ownership forms is guaranteed* by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Therefore, actions planned by Head of Roszdravnadzor may create discriminatory conditions when private economic entities will be put in an unequal position in comparison with other economic entities.

Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophey Nizhegorodtsev emphasized: “The quality of medical care is important for all medical providers without exceptions, both private and public. Medical surveillance should focus on the quality rather than form of ownership of medical facilities”.

 * Under Part 2 Article 8 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, private, state, municipal and other forms of ownership are equally recognized and protected in Russia.