Background One of the objectives of the health transformation plan (HTP) in Iran is to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for inpatient services and eradicate informal payments. The HTP has three phases: the first phase (launched in May 5, 2014) is focused on reducing OOP payments for inpatient services; the second phase (launched in May 22, 2014) is focused on primary healthcare (PHC) and the...

While the implications of payment mechanisms for provider behaviour and cost have been amply explored in industrialized countries, there is little empirical evidence from developing countries. This study exploits the opportunities created by a pilot study of micro health insurance with capitation in Rwanda to address this issue. Using cross-sectional data collected in 52 health centres, the pap...

BACKGROUND Informal patient payments for healthcare are common in the Western Balkans, negatively affecting public health and healthcare. AIM To identify literature from the Western Balkans on what is known about informal patient payments and bought and brought goods, to examine their effects on healthcare and to determine what actions can be taken to tackle these payments. METHODS After co...

Elderly home-owners get institutionalized less often than renters do. We hypothesize that housing tenure itself explains this behavior. Using longitudinal data from a Dutch community sample (N= 2,372) collected between 1992 and 2005, we find a negative effect of housing tenure on the probability of moving to a nursing home between two subsequent waves. This effect remains significant after cont...

BACKGROUND Informal payments in the health sector of many developing countries are considered as a major impediment to health care reforms. Informal payments are a form of systemic fraud and have adverse effects on the performance of the health system. In this study, the frequency and extent of informal payments as well as the determinants of these payments were investigated in general hospital...

Informal payments for health care services are common in many transition countries, including Russia. While the Russian government proclaims its policy goal of improving access to and quality of free-of-charge health services, it has approved regulations that give local authorities the right to provide services against payment. This paper reports the results of a population-based survey (n = 20...

The management of chronic diseases is a prime challenge of most 21st century health care systems. Many Western countries have invested heavily in care plans oriented towards specific conditions and diseases, such as dementia and cancer. The major downside of this narrowly focused approach is that treatment of multimorbidity is ignored. This paper describes the development and main stance of a n...

BACKGROUND Financial protection against the cost of unforeseen ill health has become a global concern as expressed in the 2005 World Health Assembly resolution (WHA58.33), which urges its member states to "plan the transition to universal coverage of their citizens". An important element of financial risk protection is to distribute health care financing fairly in relation to ability to pay. Th...

Chronic diseases have an increasingly negative impact on (1) population health by increasing morbidity and mortality, (2) society by increasing health inequalities and burden to informal caregivers, and (3) economy by requiring enormous financial resources and jeopardising macro-economic development (e.g. consumption, capital accumulation, labour productivity and labour supply). Integrated care...