Volume 34, Issue 1 (2-2020)                   Med J Islam Repub Iran 2020 | Back to browse issues page


XML Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Mazdaki A, Zandian H, Zarrin A, Zahirian Moghadam T. Health insurance deductions in Iranian public hospitals before and after the health transformation plan. Med J Islam Repub Iran 2020; 34 (1) :157-163
URL: http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/article-1-5724-en.html
Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, & Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran , t.zahirian@arums.ac.ir
Abstract:   (2462 Views)
Background: Developing countries, such as Iran, have been struggling with high rates of insurance deduction. As part of the Health Transformation Plan (HTP) in Iran, a new reference book was introduced to update the medical tariffs. This study aimed to compare the rates and extent of insurance deductions before and after HTP in Iran’s public hospitals.
   Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study. Overall, 400 medical bills were selected from Iran’s national Health Information System using multilevel random sampling before and after HTP implementation (2014 and 2017). Insurance deductions were divided into 5 groups: (1) diagnostic procedures, (2) medication and medical appliances, (3) accommodation and human capital provision, (4) surgery, and (5) other services. Using STATA Version 14.0, independent t test and Fisher’s exact test were used for data analysis. Significance level was set at 0.5.
   Results: There was a significant decrease in insurance deductions among Iran’s Health Insurance (HI) and Social Security Insurance (SSI). Accordingly, before HTP, the average amount of insurance deductions was 58.9% and 71.3% in HI and SSI, respectively. Moreover, there was a significant decline in all 5 groups between the pre- and postimplementation of HTP (p<0.05). Based on the results, hospitalization time (OR=2.31, 95% CI=1.9-3.2), patients in general hospitals (OR=1.49, 95% CI=1.4-2.7), coverage by SSI (OR=2.54, 95% CI=1.8-5.6), and having surgery (OR=3.5, 95% CI=2.0-7.3) increase the chance of insurance deduction significantly (p<0.05).
   Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that after HTP, insurance deductions were decreased significantly. The causes of this decline may be due to the range of services covered by public insurances, increase in insurance coverage, and improvement in health providers-insurance companies communication.
Full-Text [PDF 452 kb]   (564 Downloads)    

Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA

Send email to the article author


Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.