Ranking Different Regions of Iran in Terms of the Level of Health Services Outsourcing and Indirect Care Activities of the Social Security Organization via Using Multiple Attribute Decision Making Method in Year 2016

Indirect treatment is one of the methods of providing health care for customers in social security organization through the purchase of services from public and private centers. In this way, a portion of the health care is outsourced. The purpose of this study was to rank different regions of Iran in terms of the level of health services outsourcing and indirect care activities of the Social Security Organization.

In this descriptive sectional study, the required data were obtained by referring to the Social Security Organization website and downloading the Statistical Yearbook of 2016. Then, indirect treatment performance of that organization in all provinces, as well as Kashan area, was evaluated and compared with each other using six indicators for covered population in each area. Evaluation was carried out using one of the newest multiple attribute decision making methods, namely Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS).

The ratio of the number of contracted-out treatment centers to the population covered by insurance in each region was recognized as the most important indicator due to having the highest weight. There was provision of indirect healthcare services form in all studied regions; but the highest performance was observed in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, while the worst performance was observed in Bushehr Province.

Social Security Organization has used indirect care method (purchasing health services and contracting with public and private centers) as a strategy to increase the accessibility of medical resources to insured customers, and to replace development and construction of proprietary centers in all regions of Iran with outsourcing (with different amount of outsourcing in different regions).