Doctors at state clinics admit charging Russians for fictitious services
Doctors at State-run clinics have admitted charging Russians for fictitious services
11.02.2026
Article published on the Moscow Times website
The digitisation of Russian healthcare has not rid the compulsory medical insurance (CMI) system of doctors’ “extras”.
In a survey conducted by the Vrachi RF website for Forbes, most doctors acknowledged that the deliberate falsification of medical records is rife in State-run clinics. False entries in the mandatory medical insurance system relate to the fictitious reporting of services that were never provided.
The problem has existed for quite a while. In 2015, Russians were able to gain access to medical service data through their personal compulsory medical insurance account and the Gosuslugi website and found non-existent appointments and procedures. The then Minister of Health, Veronika Skvortsova, had promised that the introduction of a single information system would solve the problem, but it still hasn’t gone away.
According to a survey of 245 doctors from across the country, 78% of respondents were aware of problems with fictitious services, the most common of which was bogus patient appointments (flagged by 45.3% of those surveyed). Another 16.3% mentioned the recording of non-existent examinations and tests, 14.3% spoke of unnecessary services being added to actual clinic visits, and 6.1% reported exaggerating the severity of a diagnosis, or changing it in order to charge a higher fee.
Responders often admitted to frequently overcharging for appointments in order “to meet the target”, or falsely signed-off medical examinations when patients didn’t come back for a follow-up consultation, without which the service was not paid for.
Anna Okulova, chief editor of the Vrachi RF website, said that the doctoring of patient records has become routine for medical professionals and that doctors either falsify information themselves, or do so at the behest of their superiors as health care targets are often unachievable. Moreover, incentive payments, on which a significant part of a doctor’s income depends, are directly tied to meeting these targets. If they aren’t met, bonuses are withdrawn, without which it is “impossible to survive”.
Regional funds and insurance companies monitor the quality and effectiveness of health care provided under the compulsory medical insurance scheme. According to data from the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund, the volume of fines resulting from inspections during 2025 rose to 221 million roubles, and are mainly documentation-related. Over the course of the year, the Fund received more than 4.5 million complaints, of which 36,000 were found to be justified.
Insurance companies are reporting a similar picture. SOGAZ-Med, which serves 43 million insured customers, received 770,000 complaints last year, with 31.6% of substantiated claims relating to inaccurate information in medical records.
The AlfaStrakhovanie insurance group reported that complaints had risen by 23.5% over the year. Falsified records appeared in 976 cases, which is 56% more than the previous year. Patients most often complained about “unconfirmed” medical examinations, or occupational health checks that were booked in without actually being performed.
