Health professions regulation: Fragmentation and complexity of the Brazilian model and challenges for its improvement

Abstract

The legal regulation of health professions in Brazil is composed by a set of broad, complex and fragmented norms, based on the Federal Constitution of 1988 (CF 88) and complemented by an extensive amount of laws, decrees, ordinances, and mainly resolutions issued by the professional councils. This article aims to identify the main legal frameworks that structure the regulation of professional practice in the Brazilian health sector, using the results to outline a model of regulation of the Health Professions in Brazil. The method used was normative and jurisprudential research followed by a qualitative analysis of the selected data. Based on the current laws, we first identified the different state institutions with legal competence to regulate the health professions in Brazil and the main edited norms for that purpose. Next, we searched for the regulatory conflicts brought by these institutions before the higher courts. The analysis of the selected laws and decisions allowed the characterization of what we call the Brazilian Health Professions Regulation Model, with the identification and analysis of the different state regulatory institutions and the main current norms that regulate the 14 health professions recognized by the National Health Council. The results presented in this article outline the current Model of Regulation of Health Professions in force in Brazil and contribute to the deepening of knowledge on the subject, allowing reflections for the improvement of the current Brazilian legal-institutional model.