Benefit Cancellation Sparks Price Surge in Private Clinics

At the end of December 2025, private medical organizations found that the state had excluded them from the list of socially significant types of business. This decision led to a significant increase in the tax burden and, consequently, a 15-30% rise in service costs starting from 2026.

Market participants report widespread price increases. «There is not a single provider that hasn«t raised prices from January 1 by less than 10%, and mostly from 15 to 35%,» industry sources note. The unexpected cancellation of benefits forced clinics to urgently recalculate price lists.

Factors Driving the Price Increase

General Director of the Association of Private Clinics of St. Petersburg Alexander Solonin highlights three key reasons for the price hike. First, the increase in VAT to 22% affected the cost of equipment and consumables purchased by clinics. For example, a sterilizer priced at 1 million rubles (approximately $10,000 at current rates) now costs 20,000 rubles ($200) more.

Second, from 2026, the maximum annual income threshold for applying the simplified taxation system (STS) is being reduced — from 60 million to 20 million rubles. This will increase costs for small clinics by 5–7%.

The third and main factor was the cancellation of insurance premium benefits for small and medium-sized businesses. Now, companies with annual revenue up to 1 billion rubles are required to pay contributions from the payroll fund at a rate of 30%, not 15% as before.

For illustration, Solonin provides a calculation: for a surgeon with a salary of 200,000 rubles ($2,000), the employer paid about 35,000 rubles ($350) in contributions in 2025, but from 2026 this amount will increase to 60,000 rubles ($600).

«We estimated the payroll fund charges for our medium-sized business with a maximum revenue of one billion rubles per year. ... the change in social contributions for one month will exceed 5 million rubles ($50,000) — 60 million rubles ($600,000) per year. This is approximately 7% in real costs for clinics,» the expert explained.

Moreover, the cost increase is exacerbated by rising tariffs for electricity and communications, general inflation, and a high key rate limiting access to loans.

Initially, an average bill increase of 10% was forecast, but after the December 29 decision, estimates were adjusted to 15-20%. Some clinics have already raised prices by 25-30%.

Cautious Response from Medical Centers

Director of «Medical Center 21 Century» Anna Sokolova said that her company is not rushing with a sharp increase. «The increase in payroll taxes from 15% to 30% is critical for us, but it is not a reason for us to immediately, say, raise prices from January 1 or February 1,» she stated.

According to Sokolova, the clinic traditionally reviews prices in mid-summer and will monitor cost dynamics to make a balanced decision.

Dental Market: Competition Restrains Price Growth

In dentistry, the situation is different. General Director of «Medical Center of Kind Dentists» Emil Agadzhanyan believes that there will be no sharp price increase due to high competition and limited population purchasing power. «People are already struggling to save up for dental care,» he noted.

Agadzhanyan thinks that the cost of dental services will increase gradually, within inflation. The most material-intensive areas, such as implantology, have already faced an increase in prices for imported materials of up to 8.5%.

The expert also warned of the risk of a return to «gray» payroll schemes if the tax burden becomes unbearable. However, this is dangerous since specialized commissions actively track illegal employment.

Consequences for Voluntary Medical Insurance

Insurance companies that concluded voluntary medical insurance (VMI) contracts based on a 10% price increase in medicine are now facing a real increase of 15-40%. General Director of «Kapital-polis» company Alexey Kuznetsov predicts difficulties: «It will be very bad.»

«Insurers always increased policy costs less than medical providers, otherwise clients would not understand us. As a result, for our companies operating in the VMI system, package costs for their partners in 2025 were based on one set of prices, and from the beginning of 2026 we saw another,» Kuznetsov explained.

He urged clinics not to pass all costs onto patients but to seek a reasonable balance to avoid provoking a client outflow.