Medical equipment leasing in Russia

2022: For 3 years, state-owned clinics in Russia spent 3.3 billion rubles on leasing medical equipment

In the period from 2020 to 2022, state medical organizations in Russia spent approximately 3.3 billion rubles on leasing medical equipment. Such data are given in the opinion of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation published on July 3, 2023 on the report on the implementation of the budget of the Federal Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (Compulsory Medical Insurance) for 2022.

The document says that the leasing mechanism contributes to the expansion of the range of diagnostic and treatment services provided by clinics. In addition, medical institutions are able to conduct surgical operations in a timely manner. In general, this has a positive effect on the quality and availability of medical care.

Medical organizations spent approximately 3.3 billion rubles on leasing medical equipment

At the same time, in December 2022, changes were made to the rules of compulsory health insurance, defining restrictions on the amount of costs for renting medical equipment at the expense of compulsory medical insurance. In particular, the amount of payment should not exceed 1 million rubles per year for one leasing object, and if a medical organization has overdue accounts payable for three months, the costs cannot be more than 100 thousand rubles.

It is said that these rules created the conditions for "the actual cessation of the use of the leasing mechanism by medical organizations as a tool to increase the efficiency of medical care through the use of high-tech medical equipment." This is due to the presence of payables in medical organizations, as well as a decrease in economic attractiveness for lessors, since a decrease in the amount of payments entails an increase in the terms of financial lease of equipment.

The current situation has led to the fact that auctions for leasing medical equipment, including for emergency hospitals and city hospitals, have been canceled in seven regions of the Russian Federation. These subjects included the Republic of Dagestan, the Republic of Buryatia, the Republic of Khakassia, the Primorsky Territory, the Tomsk Region, the Belgorod Region and the Irkutsk Region.^[1]

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