Curbing Financial Corruption in Lebanese Healthcare Sector
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Abstract
Up to 2016, Lebanon was ranked the first among the Arab countries in the high level of corruption in its administration and public institutions. This corruption has penetrated the Lebanese healthcare sector deeply and has spread at different levels including hospitalization, medicine, and most notably within the healthcare financing system. The objective of this paper is to highlight the major global corruption practices in health sector while focusing on the current state of Lebanon. Secondary data and statistics are obtained from published reports, statements and interviews. Mainly, there is an irrational high expenditure and relative surplus in the healthcare market especially for medical equipment’s. In addition, there is a gap in health policies in terms of laws, regulations, and governance practices such as lack of accountability; transparency and access to information. Key implications are presented for healthcare practitioners to adapt anti-corruption interventions and coordinate with the guarantors in curbing the financial corruption and raising the social awareness. Future studies can expand this issue empirically and put the discussion into a comparison approach. This paper highlights some of the announced corrupt practices in the Lebanese healthcare sector and proposes proactive anti-corruption interventions for much more hidden violations.
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