Protecting health and patient safety while optimizing resources
The Managing Director of the Iran Health Insurance Organization outlined a roadmap moving from passive payment toward intelligent, active regulation. Public health literacy, healthier behavior and quaternary prevention, protecting patients from unnecessary and high-risk interventions, were identified as essential to reducing treatment risks and protecting insured people's wellbeing.
According to Mehr News Agency and the Organization's public relations office, Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Nasehi told a strategy meeting that modern insurers' responsibilities extend beyond financing and reimbursement. Under strategic purchasing, oversight focuses on service quality, clinical effectiveness and medical necessity, aiming for the highest safety and lowest potential harm.
Quaternary prevention and clinical risk management
Nasehi described quaternary prevention as identifying and controlling risks from excessive, nonstandard or unnecessary diagnostic and treatment activity, or overmedicalization. Repeated prescriptions without clear indications and unnecessary radiation-based imaging place financial burdens on healthcare and threaten patient health. Protocols minimizing clinical risk and protecting long-term community health are therefore an implementation priority.
Health literacy as the basis for behavior change
Public empowerment and awareness are strategic foundations of health and safety management. Comprehensive health management and cost control are cultural and knowledge-based processes as well as financial ones. Health literacy encourages healthier behavior, informed demand and fewer inappropriate or repeated visits. Informed citizens can choose services according to actual clinical need, improving individual and public safety.
Quality-based provider performance scorecards
Continuous oversight and timely corrective action are prerequisites for safe, high-quality care. The Organization planned scorecards based on standard indicators, clinical guideline compliance, patient-safety protocols and control of induced costs. Assessments would determine contract renewal and facility classification.
Provincial experience and continuous improvement
Nasehi called for knowledge management and nationally integrated processes. Provincial directorates must monitor services, implement quaternary prevention and document successful regional approaches to reducing unnecessary care and improving clinical quality. After validation, these experiences can become implementation standards nationwide.
Source links: www.mehrnews.com
Original publication date (Solar Hijri): 1405/06/21
Author: Dibagostaran Sanat