Financial Transparency and Access to Health Information in Iran: Analysis of Related Laws and Documents

Despite numerous laws and regulations related to access to information and transparency, there are many problems in their implementation. The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the challenges facing laws and documents related to transparency in the health system of Iran.

Documents, laws and regulations related to issues of access to information, transparency, and disclosure of information from various fields were collected and analyzed using the READ approach. After systematic naming of documents and laws, their information was entered in a table, after which different parts of each document were carefully analyzed and compared.

There are numerous documents, laws and regulations on the issue of access to information and transparency, but the lack of enforcement for these laws and regulations has caused inefficiency. Some of these documents, laws and guidelines are in conflict with each other and some have shortcomings. Often, there is a long time gap between the drafting of the bill, the approval of the law and enforcement of executive instructions. Sometimes, unawarness of the method of identifying and separating privacy information and personal information causes problems in implementation.

Attention to enforcement while developing transparency and access to information is a fundamental necessity, in order to prevent introduction of a multitude of ineffective laws. Drafting of laws and regulations in terms of form and content should be in such a way that the possibility of misunderstanding and violation of them is minimized. Approval of bills and executive regulations must be achieved at the appointed time, so that the laws are implemented at the right time and have the required effectiveness