title: Informal payments for health care services in Russia: old issue in new realities.
abstract: Informal payments can be found across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. Despite its hidden nature, they pose an important policy issue. Reported as being widespread, the true scale and scope of informal payment are unknown, and estimations differ among studies. We look at the Russian health care sector where the existence of informal payments has persisted for decades. We present the scale and scope of informal payments, as well as patterns of informal payments and their determinants. We discuss the reasons for discrepancies in estimations and implications for the ongoing reforms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Research, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University Medical Center, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Vladimir S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Gordeev
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Research, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University Medical Center, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pavlova
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Research, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University Medical Center, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Groot
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019981:Health Care Sector / Q000191:economics; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D018803:Models, Economic; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012426:Russia