Russian legislation on medical and social assessment: application in the context of citizens’ rights protection interaction

Introduction: the paper is focused on the analysis of law enforcement practice relating to the commissioning and conduct of medical and social assessment, re-examination of the disabled, as well as concerning the procedure for the development and implementation of individual rehabilitation / habilitation programs. Scientific interest of the authors of this paper is associated with individual issues of law enforcement which are generated by lack of effective legal support for medical and social assessment and rehabilitation of disabled people. The use of Russian legislation in the context of protecting the rights of citizens with disabilities is analyzed. Purpose: to develop understanding of the problematic aspects of medical and social assessment and rehabilitation of the disabled, and, on that basis, to formulate proposals for improving legislation in this area of public relations. Methods: analysis, synthesis, generalization, benchmarking, comparison, statistical, formal logic. Results: key issues of law enforcement of the Russian legislation on medical and social assessment and rehabilitation of the disabled have been identified, recommendations have been made to optimize the mechanism of medical and social assessment in order to protect the rights of people with disabilities. Conclusions: there has been identified a gap in regulatory legal acts, which should be eliminated, namely, there are no deadlines for issuing certificates and medical assessment reports for the disabled, which affects the right to apply to an examination bureau. It is suggested that an expert in the disease being the reason for determining disability should be included in the expert committee on a mandatory basis. The paper also justifies a proposal to improve the procedure and the form of recording the process of conducting medical and social assessment.