TEHRAN – The number of health centers that have concluded contracts with the Health Insurance Organization has increased by seven percent in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21) compared with the past year.

More than 53,000 centers have concluded contracts with Health Insurance Organization so far in the current year, IRNA quoted Keivan Tajbakhsh, an official with the Organization, as saying.

Health insurance contracts have been signed with government, non-government, private, and charity centers for services.

The centers include doctors' offices, hospitals, pharmacies, rehabilitation centers, and all medical centers.

“We hope to witness an increase in the number of health centers that are parties to the contract with Health Insurance Organization as new forms of the contract, approved by the Supreme Council of Insurance, are announced,” Tajbakhsh said.

He stated that 13,931 pharmacies, 20,804 doctor's offices, 2,049 clinics 2,446 independent laboratories, and 4261 rehabilitation centers, both independent and affiliated with other organizations, have concluded contracts with the Health Insurance Organization.

Infertility treatment services

Health Insurance Organization offers a variety of services from medical equipment to medicine for infertile couples.

The services include 28 items of medical equipment, 56 laboratory services, 63 drugs for special diseases, 20 surgical services, four subspecialty treatments, and seven medical imaging services, Mohammad-Esmaeil Kameli, an official with the Organization, said.

He went on to say that about 90 percent of the treatment costs in government centers and 90 percent of the costs in other centers, including private, charitable, and non-governmental centers, are covered by Health Insurance.

Insured infertile couples, who have been registered in the Health Insurance system, can enjoy these services.

The health insurance organization covers nearly 45 million people in the country, of whom 12 million receive free health insurance coverage

Other significant services

 Health Insurance Organization, together with the Ministry of Health, have provided important and significant services in different sectors.

Providing free insurance for low-income families, paying the medical expenses of infertile couples, providing services to the disabled, supporting patients with rare diseases, and providing services to foreign nationals are among the provided services so far, IRNA reported.

The government has adopted policies to identify uninsured people. In this regard, the Health Insurance Organization in cooperation and interaction with the Social Security Organization was assigned to identify uninsured people, who are often from the vulnerable groups of society.

Accordingly, some 90 percent of hospitalization costs and around 70 percent of outpatient treatment costs are covered by insurance.

In this regard, by allocating 50 trillion rials (about $100 million), 107 rare diseases are covered by the health insurance fund, and with the cooperation of universities, a lion’s share of treatment costs are paid by the government.

So far, more than 31 rare and special diseases, including high blood pressure, MS, type 2 diabetes, hemodialysis, thalassemia, kidney transplant, hemophilia, diabetic retinopathy, type 1 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and autism, have been identified in the system of the Health Insurance Organization.

Unfortunately, during the past years, many infertile couples who wanted a child avoided pursuing their problems due to the huge and staggering costs of treatment.

This is while paying attention to this important issue can help increase the young population, which is one of the most important and influential elements in the progress and development of the country.

With the support of the organization, infertile couples without insurance coverage, pregnant mothers, and their babies up to the age of 5 are covered by insurance.

All the indicators of health and treatment have made significant progress after the Islamic Revolution, and now Iran is one of the leading countries in this field.

Electronic health records have been set up so far for 98 percent of people in the country. One of the key features of an EHR is that health information can be created and managed by authorized providers in a digital format capable of being shared with other providers across more than one healthcare organization.

Iran has one of the strongest health systems in the region and this opportunity should be used optimally in the field of health diplomacy, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said.

MT/MG