Informal patient payments in Central and Eastern European countries
eKMAIR
Переглянути архів Інформація| Поле | Співвідношення | |
| Title |
Informal patient payments in Central and Eastern European countries
Dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor at Maastricht University |
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| Creator |
Stepurko, Tetiana
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| Description |
Out-of-pocket patient payments are a major source of health care funding in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. They take different forms, e.g. formal co-payments, quasiformal charges and informal patient payments. Formal co-payments are regulated by national legislation and quasi-formal charges are set by the health care provider in the absence of clear government regulations. Informal payments (also known as “under-the-table” or “envelope” payments) comprise all unregistered patient payments for publicly-funded health care services. Informal patient payments claim more attention as ignoring these payments causes underestimation of total health expenditure and their hidden nature imposes a great challenge to health care provision in terms of accessibility as well as accountability and transparency. Overall, a huge variety in the nature and patterns of informal patient payments is reported across countries. Studies provide evidence on the variation in informal payment type (cash or in-kind gifts given by patients or their families), timing (before, after or during service provision), subject (out- or in-patient service), purpose (obtaining better quality or access), and motivation (physician’s request or patient’s initiative). As recent cross-country studies on informal patient payments are lacking, this dissertation enhances our understanding of informal patient payments by comparing their scale and pattern across CEE. The study is financed by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Program, Theme 8 Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities, Project ASSPRO CEE 2007 (Grant Agreement no. 217431). The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of the author and it in no way represents the views of the Commission or its services. |
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| Date |
2013-10-09T06:34:15Z
2013-10-09T06:34:15Z 2013-09 |
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| Type |
Thesis
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| Identifier |
http://www.ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2568
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| Language |
en
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| Relation |
Maastricht University
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