policy making and health economics/ social security organization research institute
Abstract
The conflict of structural interests in the health system means the situation that one institution has different duties and its subordinate aims are in conflict with its original aim. This conflict can greatly increase the cost of the health system and reduce its effectiveness significantly. Therefore, it is important to consider it. A conflict of interest can be created in financial or non-financial aspects. In this paper the financial aspect has been considered. According to the theoretical foundations, in the health system there are two types of conflicts of interest: 1) regulation system organization, simultaneously provide health services; and 2) financial provider, simultaneously provide health services. In the health system of Iran, the roles of the system regulation, the financial provider and the service provider are not well-defined. The Ministry of Health works on all three of these functions; the Social Security organization also operates in two areas: financial provider and service provider. The private sector is also a service provider. According to the article, there is a conflict of interest both in the duties of the Ministry of Health and in the duties of the Social Security Organization. A further study showed that there was no conflict of interest in the social security organization's duties, but there are in the Ministry of Health. The findings showed that Iran's health system is suffering from the first-mentioned type of structural conflict of interest. The solution that can be proposed is to separate the providing duty from the Ministry of Health.
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