Analysis of tariff agreements of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation: form and completeness of data presentation

Abstract

Background. Each constituent entity of the Russian Federation (RF) on the basis of the territorial programme of state guarantees of free medical care for citizens forms a tariff agreement (TA) on payment for medical care. Despite the list of requirements to the content and structure of the tariff agreement established by the decree of the Ministry of Health of the RF, there are significant differences among the regional tariff agreements in terms of content and completeness of the information provided. Objective: a comparative analysis of TA of the RF constituent entities and additional agreements to them to identify differences in their structure and content. Material and methods . To carry out the analysis, the data of TA for the full calendar year 2022 were systematised into a single database with the allocation of the main parameters regulated by legal documents. On the basis of the database, the availability and form of information presentation in the TA were analysed. Results. The differences were revealed, which can be divided into two groups. In the first group, they relate to the content and structure of TA; in the second group, to the presentation of TA in public domain. The differences are related to the information content of TA, details of tariffs for medical services, the presence or absence of tariffs for separate medical services, as well as the presentation and formats of TA files on the websites of territorial compulsory health insurance funds. Conclusion. To date, there are still a significant number of differences between TA of the RF constituent entities. The lack of unification in data presentation in the regions increases the risk of errors in comparative analysis, which may ultimately affect the correctness of its results presented to the authorities for decision-making in the health care sector. The new unified form of TA will make it possible to eliminate the above-mentioned differences in content and presentation by bringing the data to a single format.