Medical Services Contracts: Features and Ways of Improvement

Availability of law is of particular importance in the modern world, which significantly increases the demand for language simplicity and understandability of legal acts: normative, law-enforcement, contractual ones. The contract for the provision of reimbursable medical service is a vivid example of a legal text for which the value of linguistic accessibility is especially significant. The study aims to assess the linguistic and other means used in the contract for the provision of reimbursable medical services, in terms of their effectiveness in achieving the goals for which the contract is concluded. As a material for analysis, we used contracts for the provision of fee-based health-care services of a number of medical institutions in the city of Volgograd. The study allowed to conclude that entering into a contract may actually pursue one or more of the following objectives: to legally secure the medical institution from possible claims on the part of a service recipient; to inform the patient about the possible risks associated with medical intervention; to inform patients about the content of current legislation; to confirm the fact that the patient is familiarized with the internal current rules of the medical institution. The scope, content, style of presentation of the contract should be determined by the priorities in achieving its goals. From this follows the conclusion that the unification of the contract for the provision of medical services is inappropriate. The study shows that the quality of the contract for the provision of medical services a largely guaranteed by an optimal balance between the two requirements: the language availability of its content for the recipient of the services and the legal sufficiency of the provisions laid down in the contract to prevent possible conflicts between the parties. Relevant to any type of contract, these requirements are of particular importance for the analyzed agreements, taking into account the specifics of the psychological and ethical aspects of the emerging legal relationship.