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 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: 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 ...

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...

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...

Abstract Informal payments for healthcare are widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. They often regressive, potentially limiting access to quality healthcare, particularly the most vulnerable, and can have catastrophic consequences households. Yet there is little empirical research that uses theory-driven hypotheses explore what influences informal and, especially, from health workers’ perspectives....

CONTEXT Doctors have been known to treat or give consultation to patients informally, with none of the usual record keeping or follow up. They may wish to know whether this practice is ethical. OBJECTIVE To determine whether this practice meets criteria of medical ethics. DESIGN Informal medicine is analysed according to standard ethical principles: autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence...

While research studies of digital and mobile payment systems in HCI have pointed out design opportunities situated within informal and nuanced mobile contexts, we have not yet understood how we can design digital monies to allow users to use monies more easily in these contexts. In this study, we examined the design of Alipay and WeChat Wallet, two successful mobile payment apps in China, which...