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Informal Health Payments in the SARS-CoV-2 Era: Options from Greece

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Integrity, Transparency and Corruption in Healthcare & Research on Health, Volume II

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Abstract

The healthcare system’s major purpose is quality, but many times, it is getting challenging due to economic and health crises. One of these aspects is corruption with informal payments, expressed by illegal amounts from patients to healthcare staff to receive qualitative care. Contains black payments (better treatment), lost payments (equal or worst treatment), grey payments (undeclared payments with tax returns), and gratitude payments (bad healthcare). Greece is a country where informal payments are most detected, with less public revenue, delay in economic growth, and lack of financial sustainability. We focus on informal health payments in Greece and on effective solutions aiming to eliminate the phenomenon. More information must be given about the types of healthcare corruption and aspects of informal out-of-pocket healthcare payments globally and especially in Greece through surveys. However, are insufficient which argued by specific measures to prevent corrupt practices in health and secure a healthcare system with qualitative issues, i.e., elective surgery list, complaints of patients in healthcare authorities, sanctions, etc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Sector of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry, School of Health Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Paraskevi Koufopoulou

  2. Laboratory of Health Economics and Management, Department of Economics, School of Economics, Business and International Studies, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Athanassios Vozikis

  3. Department of Social and Educational Policy, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Peloponnese, Corinth, Greece

    Kyriakos Souliotis

  4. Department of Accounting and Finance, School of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

    Andreas Koutoupis

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  1. Paraskevi Koufopoulou
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  2. Athanassios Vozikis
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  3. Kyriakos Souliotis
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  4. Andreas Koutoupis
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Correspondence to Paraskevi Koufopoulou .

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  1. Centre for Forensic Accounting Research and Enterprise, School of Finance and Management, SOAS University of London, London, UK

    Kıymet Tunca Çalıyurt

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Koufopoulou, P., Vozikis, A., Souliotis, K., Koutoupis, A. (2023). Informal Health Payments in the SARS-CoV-2 Era: Options from Greece. In: Çalıyurt, K.T. (eds) Integrity, Transparency and Corruption in Healthcare & Research on Health, Volume II. Accounting, Finance, Sustainability, Governance & Fraud: Theory and Application. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5502-2_10

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