The Requirements of Strategic Purchasing of Health Services for Cancer Patients A Qualitative Study in Iran

The strategic purchasing creates dynamics and providers' competitiveness among the internal market of governmental sector with ensuring appropriate payments and promoting quantity-quality of service delivery that lead to improve the health system efficiency. This study aimed to determine the requirements for the strategic purchasing of health services for cancer patients in Iran. As a qualitative research with a framework analysis, this study was conducted in Iran from July 2018 to February 2019. The participants were included some administrating managers, experts, and specialists of insurance selected purposefully by snowball sampling method. The framework analysis of the study included 5 steps. Data were saturated after 21 semistructured interviews. The main findings included 3 main themes (supply management, insurance trusteeship, and financial performance) and 14 subthemes (strategic purchasing infrastructures, practical guidelines, trusteeship structure, service package, service quality, service quantity, role of other organizations and groups, training, establishment of an insurance thought, strategic management, communication, price, efficiency and effectiveness, and resource provision). The strategic purchasing model of health services increases the power of service purchasers and payment based on defined priorities, resulting in providers' coordinating for care provision, enhancement of financial performance and cancer patients' better access to health services, improvement of life quality, and financial protection.