Counting the challenges of the program to reduce the amount of hospitalized patients in the Iranian health system: a qualitative study

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Research in Management and Economics

Year: 2020

DOI:

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Counting the challenges of the program to reduce the amount of hospitalized patients in the Iranian health system: a qualitative study

Esmaeil Rezazadeh, Ghahraman Mahmoudi, Fatemeh Dabaghi

ABSTRACT: 

Introduction: The program to reduce the amount of payment in the health system with 3 approaches of financial protection of people, creating justice in access to health services and improving quality was implemented in May 2013. The payment reduction program, like any other program, has faced challenges. Therefore, this study was conducted to explain the challenges of the payment reduction program in the health settings  of the Iranian health system.

Methods: This applied study was conducted qualitatively with a semi-structured interview on the policy makers and planners of the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education of Iran in 2020, using the purposeful sampling method. The obtained data were entered into MAXQDA10 software and analyzed through a content analysis approach.

Findings: From data analysis, 4 themes: “Weakness in the structure of health expenditure management”, “Weakness in the structure of policy and planning”, “effectiveness and low efficiency of the health system”, “control of debilitating health costs by reducing people’s payment ” were categorized in 12 themes and 79 sub-themes and challenges were extracted.

Conclusion: By identifying the opportunities and challenges of out-of-pocket (OOP) payment, the results of this study could provide a suitable framework for monitoring and evaluation of the payment reduction program in the Iranian health system and a good way for policymakers and planners in different stages of the program.

Keywords: Payment reduction program, Challenge, Qualitative study.