Introduction 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 ...

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...

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...

informal payments to health care providers have been reported in many african, asian and european countries. this study aimed to investigate different aspects of these payments that are also known as under-the-table payments in iran.this is an in-depth interview-based qualitative study conducted on 12 purposively chosen clinical specialists. the interviewees answered 9 questions including the o...

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...

In many developing countries, public patients offer payments to their doctors outside the official payment channels. We argue that the fundamental reason for these informal payments is that formal prices cannot fully differentiate patients’ various needs. We compare patient welfare and social efficiency when informal payments are allowed with the scenario when they are banned. Patient heterogen...

background informal payments for health care, which are common in many countries, can have negative effects on health care access, equity and health status as they lead people to forgo or delay seeking care, or to sell assets to pay for care. many countries are putting reforms in place with the aim of reducing informal payments. in order to be successful, such policies should be informed by the...