Medico-Economic Standards in Russia: Balancing Legal Requirements and Patients Needs

Medico-economic standards (MES) are a relatively recent innovation in the Russian public health-care system. MES specify the kinds and quantities of diagnostic and treatment services a patient with a particular health condition should receive. They are meant to simultaneously control costs and quality of care, and medical professionals in public institutions have a legal obligation to follow these standards. This chapter explores how MES work in practice and how health-care practitioners attempt to reconcile demands of MES, realities of their practice, and demands of patients. The chapter stresses that in mediating these, health-care practitioners place themselves in a precarious position of balancing between being legally sanctioned and providing inadequate medical help.