Legal Solutions to Address Conflict of Interest in Licensing Healthcare Institutions in Iranian Healthcare System

Conflict of interest (COI) management and corruption control in settings that government is (at least) one of the main players has always received special attention of legal systems. Undoubtedly, this is especially important in the field of health, which has a susceptible exposure to corruption due to its high financial turnover and also since it is one of the most important and basic human welfare needs, which requires proper management by the governments. Hence, this study aimed to, first identify challenges of managing (COI) in licensing process of medical institutions in the Iran’s health rights system and, secondly to propose solutions that can address the gaps and maximize the rights of the nation.

This research is of theoretical type and the research method is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is library and has been done by referring to documents, books and articles.

Ethical Considerations: 

Throughout the present study, scientific integrity and fidelity have been fully observed.

The findings indicated incompatibility of the current mechanism of establishing medical institutions and their licensing process with the current requirements and high economic attractiveness of institutions and the imbalance between supply and demand have created challenges for (COI) management, indicating the necessity of healthcare reforms.

Reforming establishment process of medical institutions such as need to register legal entities in cases of multiple establishment applicants or the removing the restriction on the need for the applicant to be a physician, along with reviewing the competencies of the commissions of Article 20 of the "Food and Beverage Law approved in 1955" and its replacement with a coherent and systematic structure and organization, along with precise monitoring mechanisms, can have positive results in fighting the (COI) in this sector and consequently attracting the maximum amount of private sector capital in the health system and guarantying the citizens' right to health.