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...

OBJECTIVES The goal was to identify current payment practices in research involving children. METHODS A 4-page survey was mailed to the first author or corresponding author of pediatric research studies. Questions concerned whether children enrolled in research and/or their parents received any form of payment, values and types of remuneration, federal categories of pediatric research under w...

A better understanding of high-cost kidney transplant patients would be useful for informing value-based purchasing strategies by payers. This retrospective cohort study was based on the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) files from 2003 to 2006. The focus of this analysis was high-cost kidney transplant patients (patients that qualified for Medicare outlier payments and 30-day read...

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...

OBJECTIVE To identify payments and changes in payments for glaucoma surgical procedures among Medicare beneficiaries in the United States and to evaluate trends in costs based on the types of procedures being performed. DESIGN Retrospective analysis using 1997 through 2006 Part B Medicare Beneficiary Encrypted Files. The annual number of claims and payments for glaucoma surgical procedures we...