Beyond the price tag: a scoping review of the determinants of informal payments in health systems and strategies for curbing them
Faride Sadat Jalali, Najmeh Bordbar, Mohadeseh Ghanbari-Jahromi, Mohsen Bayati · 2026
Read Beyond the price tag: a scoping review of the determinants of informal payments in health systems and strategies for curbing them by Faride Sadat Jalali, Najmeh Bordbar, Mohadeseh Ghanbari-Jahromi, Mohsen Bayati (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13463993.txt.
Description
Jalali and co-authors mapped the worldwide literature in 2026 on informal payments in health care. These are the under-the-table cash or gifts patients hand over for services they are officially entitled to receive. The review followed established scoping methods across five databases through January 2025. Two reviewers independently screened the records. Findings were grouped thematically.
The 68 included studies sorted the causes into five stacked levels. They span frightened or hurried patients and underfunded, weakly regulated systems. Underpaid providers short on supplies form another level. Cultures where such gifts feel normal, and organizations lacking accountability, complete the set. Reported prevalence swung wildly, from 2 percent to 80 percent of patients depending on country and service. Proposed fixes also fell into five families. They range from teaching patients their rights to raising provider pay, widening insurance, and tightening oversight with real sanctions.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Faride Sadat Jalali, Najmeh Bordbar, Mohadeseh Ghanbari-Jahromi, Mohsen Bayati |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 85 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |