How health transformation plan was designed and implemented in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

• Main Authors: Iraj Harirchi, Mohammad Hajiaghajani, Aliakbar Sayari, Rassoul Dinarvand, Haniye Sadat Sajadi, Mahdi Mahdavi, Elham Ahmadnezhad, Alireza Olyaeemanesh, Reza Majdzadeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Preventive Medicine
• Subjects: health care reform; health system; health system strengthening; universal health coverage
• Online Access: http://www.ijpvmjournal.net/article.asp?issn=2008-7802;year=2020;volume=11;issue=1;spage=121;epage=121;aulast=Harirchi
• ISSN: 2008-7802; 2008-8213

Following his inauguration in late 2013, President Rouhani aimed to boost quality and equity in the health care delivery system. To fulfill this aim, a set of interventions, called Health Transformation Plan (HTP), were implemented. So far, it has been a heated debate whether HTP breathes a spirit of a new reform. HTP has targeted long-standing historical deficits of the Iranian health system as well as urgent problems, both of which have been, to some extent, resolved. To decrease Out-Of-Pocket (OOP) health expenditures, HTP has presented new financing mechanisms to expand a safety net to Iranian citizens fundamentally. HTP also encompassed interventions to overcome problems in the provision of health care by recruitment of health workforces, establishing new health facilities, and expanding primary health care to urban and peri-urban areas. Furthermore, performance indicators including access, quality, and patient satisfaction have been affected. Given these changes, HTP is entitled to be a health system reform. However, a new agenda within HTP is required so that the Iranian health system can obtain better value for money that is to be spending on it.