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Masoudi Asl I, Bakhtiari Aliabad M, Akhavan Behbahani A, Rahbari Bonab M. Health System Costs in Iran, How to Manage it. Iran J Health Insur 2019; 1 (4) :117-127
URL: http://journal.ihio.gov.ir/article-1-46-en.html

Introduction: Today, growing increase of costs is one of the challenges for health systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the health costs trend in Iran and the policies adopted to manage them better.
Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was carried out in two steps: 1- General review of the Iran's health system costs trend based on National Health Accounts. 2-identification of Experts views on factors lead to increasing health costs in Iran and the strategies used to manage these costs better in last few decades, through simple and accessible sampling and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was done through deductive / inductive hybrid framework, and a thematic framework was developed during the analysis. The NVivo software was used to manage and categorize data.
Results: health costs in Iran has increased over the past years, and various strategies have been used to manage these costs that Extending primary health care, expanding insurance coverage, implementing a family physician program in small towns, villages and among nomads are the most important ones.
Conclusions: Despite the adoption of some strategies to control the health costs in Iran in different periods, growing increase in health costs is a concern. Therefore, health policy makers need to make and implement appropriate polices in order to manage these costs better, while improving access, quality of service and eventually welfare of patients.