The major characteristic of this payment method is that there is no direct link between the capitation payment and the cost of the health services consumed by an individual patient; in other words, providers are not paid according to the quantity and mix of health services given to that individual.
All characteristics of informal patient payments included in our definition, appeared relevant for describing the pattern and magnitude of informal payments for health care services.
Based on the definitions of informal patient payments discussed above and reported in other publications [e.g. [ 29, 30]], it is possible to define several key characteristics of informal patient payments, which can provide a base for a universal definition.
The characteristics of informal patient payments presented above, cannot be analysed separately because they may correlate among each other or one characteristic may even be a cause of another characteristic.
Objective: To estimate the scale and determinants of informal payments in the health sector of Bulgaria and to identify who benefits, the characteristics and timing of payments, and the reasons for paying.
Electronic physician claims databases are widely used for chronic disease research and surveillance, but quality of the data may vary with a number of physician characteristics, including payment method.
Significance and the effect of user charges thus depend on the amount, frequency of payment, type and characteristics of each country.
Data are obtained on demographic characteristics of patients, expected source(s) of payment, patients' complaints, diagnoses, diagnostic/screening services, procedures, medication therapy, disposition, types of providers seen, causes of injury, and certain characteristics of the facility, such as geographic region and metropolitan status.
Table 2 outlines the characteristics of physician survey respondents by type of payment plan.
Similarly, little is objectively known about practice characteristics and patterns, such as practice volume, settings, and methods of payment.
