M Bazyar, A Pourreza, Iraj Harirchi, F Akbari, M Mahmoudi,
Volume 11, Issue 1 (3-2012)
Abstract
Background: With more than 12 million new cases of cancers and nearly 7.6 million deaths all around the world in 2007, cancer currently is the third leading cause of death in the world. This study was conducted to determine medical and non-medical direct costs of cancer patients’ hospitalized in the cancer institute affiliated with Imam Khomeini hospital.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. All patients over 18 years old with kind of head, neck, and stomach cancers that undertaken of oncology treatments in the cancer institute which affiliated ” Imam Khomeini Hospital”. Initially eligible patients invited to participate in this study. The data was collected through structured interviews with patients and or their carers. The data, then, was analyzed by SPSS software.
Results: The average medical and non-medical direct out-of-pocket costs during primary treatment were 2,609,000 and 245,000 Tomans per patient, respectively. Furthermore, the direct average of medical costs for patients who lived in Tehran and other cities were 3,313,000 and 1,870,000 Tomans while the direct average of non-medical costs for patients who lived in Tehran and other cities were 136,000 and 360,000 Tomans, respectively.
Conclusion: The new policies for costs coverage related to cancer patients’, particularly the medical insurance organizations, financial supports from finance intuits like as banks or charity organizations, appropriate distribution of cancer’s centers or providing accommodation to cancer patients who are referred from the remote sites in other cities, and also achieving the equities in health sectors could be reduced the financial costs of cancer patients and might be helped them to manage of cancers efficiently and effectively
M Yousefi , A Assari Arani , B Sahabi , A Kazemnejad ,
Volume 12, Issue 4 (3-2014)
Abstract
Background: Today, the lack of financial protection against the health costs is recognized as a major flaw in the health systems. It seems that the first step towards solving this problem is exact identification of household health expenditure`s components which will result in better selection of prevention policies and appropriate procedures to solve the problem.
Materials and Methods: This study is a qualitative research conducted in two stages. The first stage consisted of interview with a sample formed by households from eight provinces of the country to identify the different components of household health expenditure. After that, a panel of experts categorized the identified components to direct and indirect costs.
Results: In The first stage, 93 kinds of households’ health expenditure were identified. In the next stage, 61 cases of these were categorized as direct costs and the other 32 cases were categorized as indirect costs.
Conclusion: The exact identification of the components of health expenditure of households and dividing them into two categories of direct and indirect costs can be useful for a more accurate calculation of the household health expenditure in future studies.
