Informal patient payments are a key characteristic of nearly all Central and Eastern European health care systems (1–3). Apart from formal patient payments, which are regulated by national legislation (4) and quasi-formal charges, which are set by the health care provider in the absence of clear government regulations (5–7), there are also informal payments (also known as “under-the-table” or “...

Background: Out-of-pocket and informal payments are considered as 2 most important topics for equity in health care financing. Therfore, this study was conducted to systematically review and meta-analyze the status of these payments in Iran's health care system. Methods: Required data were collected through searching the following key terms: "Unofficial", "Informal Payment", "Iran", "Health Fin...

BACKGROUND Informal payments for health care are common in most former communist countries. This paper explores the demand side of these payments in Albania. By using data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey 2005 we control for individual determinants of informal payments in inpatient and outpatient health care. We use these results to explain the main factors contributing to the occurr...

Direct out-of-pocket payments for healthcare continue to be a major source of health financing in low-income and middle-income countries. Some of these direct payments take the form of informal charges paid by patients to access the needed healthcare services. Remarkably, however, little is known about the extent to which these payments are exercised and their determinants in the context of Sub...

BACKGROUND Patient's Informal payments is among the main source of health care financing in some countries. This paper aimed at determining the patient informal payments and relative factors in Cardiac Surgery Departments (CSD) in hospitals affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS) in 2013. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 316 discharged patients were selected using mu...

BACKGROUND There is growing evidence that informal payments for health care are fairly common in many low- and middle-income countries. Informal payments are reported to have a negative consequence on equity and quality of care; it has been suggested, however, that they may contribute to health worker motivation and retention. Given the significance of motivation and retention issues in human r...

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...

under the table or informal payments in several middle and low income countries is a serious impediment to health care reform. these payments are effectively a form of systemic corruption. this report shows the efforts of a patient who seek health care for his ankle while being requested to pay under the table in hospital and private clinic. the data were collected by interview and surveying pa...

The 'watch dog' role of the media, the impact of migration processes, health care access for children in developing countries, mitigation of the effects of Global Warming are typical examples of governance issues – issues to be tackled at the base; issues to be solved by creating and implementing effective policy. prepares students to pave the road for innovative policy developments in Europe a...

UNLABELLED Informal payments are an ingrained social institution in Greece. In some cases, they are also part of corruption in the health area, which includes a variety of other forms. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to measure and analyze the size and nature of informal payments in the Greek public hospitals, concentrating on payments made to health personnel to facilitate access to...