Futures of financing of the health services for the elderly: A protocol foresight study

Abstract

BACKGROUND:After the decrease in the birth rate and the increase in life expectancy, the world's elderly population has increased. This problem has become one of the most essential health-treatment challenges of today's societies and has brought a lot of treatment costs. Iran is not an exception to this rule, and activities related to older people are provided by many institutions through support and treatment services. One of these government institutions is the "Imam Relief Committee Institution (IFC)," which is gradually increasing its population of elderly people. Since the IFC, such as all institutions, is affected by environmental changes. Therefore, it should follow dynamic planning to achieve all its goals. Thus, this study aims to investigate the future of financing health services for older people covered by IFC.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This qualitative study will be conducted in three phases. The initial stage includes conducting comparative research to identify countries whose elderly health financing systems are similar to Iran's. In the second stage of the situational analysis of IFC, expert interviews will be conducted, and influential factors will be extracted using content analysis. Finally, in the third step, possible scenarios for financing health services for older people will be identified using Scenario Wizard software.DISCUSSION:The results of this research are expected to provide appropriate evidence for policy-making and decision-making to review the system of financing services for elderly health in support organizations and necessary reforms in this case, according to the possible scenario.