To look up a health care term such as Actuary, choose the letter that the term begins with below under Alphabetical Glossary. This will take you to the terms beginning with that letter. To look up a health care acronym such as AIDS, choose the letter that the term begins with below under Acronyms. This will take you to all acronyms that begin with that letter.

24-Hour Coverage	In general, 24-hour coverage has been proposed as a type of health care system reform that integrates the health coverage and benefits currently offered by public and private insurance programs, state workers' compensation systems, and automobile insurance.
Habilitation	Programs and activities designed to help individuals maximize their independence.
Health Alliances	Nonprofit agencies that act as the health insurance purchasing agent for consumers under a system of managed competition, organized at either the state or regional level, or by employer groups. These alliances negotiated with provider networks to get the best plan at the lowest cost and would serve defined regions or classes of customers.
Health and Human Services (HHS)	See U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Health and Welfare Fund	Health care benefit funds established under provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, financed through employer and employee contributions, and administered by a board composed equally of representatives from labor and management.
Health Benefits Manager	Independent organization that provides functions to assist enrollees. This may include information, acting as an enrollment broker, handling complaints and grievances etc.
Health Care Coalition	Voluntary alliance of discrete interests sharing the principal objective of improving access to high quality health care services provided in a cost effective manner.
Health Care Data Base	Collection of information on health care episodes, such as utilization, costs, or charges.
Health Care Decision Counseling	Services, sometimes provided by insurance companies or employers, that help individuals weigh the benefits, risks and costs of health care tests and treatments. Unlike case management, health care decision counseling is non-judgmental. The goal of health care decision counseling is to help individuals make more informed choices about their health and medical care needs, and to help them make decisions that are right for the individual's unique set of circumstances. Also see demand management.
Health Care Delivery System	That combination of insurance companies, employer groups, providers of care and government agencies that work together to provide health care to a population.
Health Care Expense, Direct	All direct expenditures associated with promoting, maintaining, and restoring the health of a defined population. For employers, this frequently includes but is not limited to the design and communication of the benefit plan(s); plan administration; financing the plan(s), which may include medical, dental, vision, and pharmaceutical programs; short and long term disability programs; sick pay; payroll taxes attributable to state and general health programs (e.g., worker's compensation, Medicare, Medicaid; and philanthropy). This may also include expenses for health promotion and wellness activities and on-site medical facilities.
Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)	An agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for the administration of the Medicareand Medicaid programs.
HCFA Common Procedural Coding System (HCPCS)	Federal coding system for medical procedures. HCPCS includes CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes, national alpha-numeric codes and local alpha-numeric codes. The national codes are developed by HCFA to supplement CPT codes. They include physical services not included in CPT as well as non-physician services such as ambulance, physical therapy and durable medical equipment. The local codes are developed by local Medicare carriers to supplement the national codes. HCPCS codes are 5-digit codes, the first digit a letter followed by four numbers. HCPCS codes beginning with A through V are national; those beginning with W through Z are local. Also see physician's current procedural terminology.
Health Care Prepayment	A health plan with a Medicare cost contract to provide only Medicare Part B premiums. Some administrative requirements for these plans are less stringent than those of risk contracts or other cost contracts.
Health Care Prepayment System (HCPP)	A cost contract with HCFAthat prepays a health plan a flat amount per month to provide Medicare-eligible Part B medical services to enrolled members. Members pay premiums to cover the Medicare coinsurance, deductibles and co-payments, plus any additional non-Medicare covered services that the plan provides. The HCPP does not arrange for Part A services.
Health Care Provider	An individual or institution that provides medical services.
Health Care Proxy	A health care proxy is recognized in some states as an alternate method for naming a person to act on one's behalf in health care decision making. In a few states, a health care proxy may be included as part of a living will.
Health Care Reform	Changes in the organization, delivery and financing of health care to improve access, quality and to reduce the cost of care.
Health Insurance	A mechanism to spread the risk of unforeseen expenditures across a broad base to protect the individual from personal expenditures for health care services. Health insurance may be purchased individually or on a group basis. It may be custom designed to cover specific services and procedures and include requirements to control the level of use and payment for these services. An employee health insurance benefit is a nontaxable form of compensation to the employee in lieu of taxable salary or wages, provided through employment. Various types of insurance, such as accident, disability income, medical expense, dental, vision, hearing, and accidental death and dismemberment may be made available through employment. Benefits may be available to dependents of active employees, retirees, spouses, survivors, and dependents through employment. Benefits for classes of active and retired employees and their dependents need not be uniform. The employer may purchase benefits or the costs may be shared between the employer and employee.
Health Insurance Association of American (HIAA)	A corporate member trade association of health and accident insurance companies; based in Washington, D.C.
Health Insurance Claim Number	The number listed on the beneficiary's Medicare card consisting of nine digits followed by one or more letters. The nine digits represent the Social Security number of either the beneficiary or their spouse depending upon whose income it is based upon.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)	The 1996 Federal legislation that makes long-term care insurance premiums tax deductible if non-reimbursable medical expenses, including part or all of long-term care premiums, exceed 7.5% of an individual's gross income. HIPPA also excludes long-term care insurance benefits from taxable income. Not all long-term care insurance coverage qualifies for this benefit.
Health Insurance Trust Fund	The Federal hospital insurance trust fund is a fund of the Treasury of the United States in which the monies collected from taxes on the annual earnings of employees, employers, and self-employed people covered by Social Security are deposited. Disbursements from the fund are made to help pay for benefit payments and administrative expenses incurred by the hospital insurance program (Medicare Part A).
Health Insuring Organization	A hybrid of a state-funded health plan and a health maintenance organization. It is usually a public corporation that pays for medical services provided to recipients in exchange for payment of a premium or subscription charges paid for by the corporation that assumes the underwriting risk.
Health Level Seven (HL7)	An existing formatting and protocol standard, that acts as an interface specification operating at the application level for transmitting health-related data. This standard has largely been used for transmission of data among departments within institutions for orders, clinical observations, test results, etc. Specific parts of HL7 have applicable CHIN use where such data needs to be transmitted between institutions and systems.
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)	An entity that offers prepaid, comprehensive health coverage for both hospital and physician services with specific health care providers using a fixed structure or capitated rates.
HMO Lookalike	This is a product where the benefit design looks much like that of an HMOwith coverage for preventative care services and dollar co-payments rather than percentage co-insurance. However, services are not restricted to network providers and there is no primary care physician requirement.
Health Manpower Shortage Area (HMSA)	An area or group which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designates as having an inadequate supply of health care providers. HMSAs can include: (1) an urban or rural geographic area, (2) a population group for which access barriers can be demonstrated that prevent members of the group from using local providers, or (3) public or non-profit private residential facilities. Also see health professional shortage area.
Health Plan	Various types of managed care plans.
Health Plan Employer Data and Information Sets (HEDIS)	A set of performance measures designed to standardize the way health plans report data to employers. HEDIS measures five major areas of health plan performance: quality, access and patient satisfaction, membership and utilization, finance, and descriptive information on health plan management.
Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)	A geographic area, population group, or medical facility that DHHSdetermines to be served by too few health professionals of particular specialties. Physicians who provide services in HPSAs qualify for the Medicare bonus payments, re-payment of medical school loans or other incentives. Also see health manpower shortage area.
Health Promotion	Process of fostering awareness, influencing attitudes, and identifying alternatives so that individuals can make informed choices and modify their behavior in order to achieve an optimum level of physical and mental health.
Health Services	The health care services or supplies covered under the plan contract.
Health Services Corporation (HSC)	General term to refer to a provider of an array of health services. Sometimes used in the insurance field to designate organizations that are required to meet special licensure requirements.
Health System	All the services, functions and resources for which the primary purpose is to affect the health of the population.
Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)	The HFMA is the nation’s leading personal membership organization for more than 35,000 financial management professionals employed by hospitals, integrated delivery systems, long-term and ambulatory care facilities, managed care organizations, medical group practices, public accounting and consulting firms, insurance companies, government agencies, and other healthcare organizations. Offices located in Westchester, IL and Washington, DC.
Healthy Start	A Medicaid program that provides health care for pregnant women and children who are at or below a specified level of income and age.
Hill Burton Act	Federal legislation enacted in 1947 to support the construction and modernization of health care institutions.
Hill-Burton Program	Federal program created in 1946 to provide funding for the construction and modernization of health care facilities. Hospitals which receive Hill-Burton funds must provide specific levels of charity care.
Histo-Tech	Cuts and stains vary thin sections of body tissue for microscopic examination by a pathologist.
HMO	See health maintenance organization.
HMO, Closed Panel	Physicians employed or contractually obligated exclusively or primarily to see the patients of an ADFS health plan.
Hold Harmless	A clause frequently found in managed care contracts, whereby the HMO and the physician agree not to hold each other liable for malpractice or corporate malfeasance if either of the parties is found to be liable. It may also refer to language that prohibits the provider from billing patients in the event a managed care company becomes insolvent.
Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)	Programs which provide services in the home or at a convenient location in the community. Commonly these programs provide assistance with meals, transportation or homemaking.
Home and Community Based Waiver	Medicaid waiver that provides a menu of community long term care services as an alternative to nursing home care. Limited to a specified number of slots in each state. The waiver generally provides a more liberal eligibility level than state plan Medicaid services. Also see Medicaid waivers.
Home Care	In contrast with inpatient and ambulatory care, home care is medical care ordinarily administered in the house setting when a patient is not sufficiently ambulatory to make frequent office or hospital visits. With these patients, intravenous therapy for example is administered at the patient's residence, usually by a health care professional. Home care reduces the need for hospitalization and it's associated costs.
Home Delivered Meals	A program authorized under Title III-C-2 of the Older Americans Act which provides, five or more days a week, at least one home delivered hot or other appropriate meal per day to older persons who are home bound, lack the capacity to prepare meals independently, or for whom congregate meal facilities are not available.
Home Health	Services performed at an individual's home including a wide range of skilled and non-skilled services, including part-time nursing care, various types of therapy, assistance with activities of daily living and homemaker services such as cleaning and meal preparation. For Medicare purpose, this term refers specifically to intermittent, physician-ordered medical services or treatment.
Home Health Agency	An organization that provides medical, therapeutic or other health services in patients' homes.
Home Health Care Agency	See home health agency.
Home Medical Equipment	Durable medical equipment prescribed by a physician for use by a patient at home. It is a means of continuing access to health care without remaining in the hospital. Such equipment may help the patient function more independently, it may assist recuperation, or it may be palliative. The equipment may be leased or purchased. These costs may be covered by a health plan.
Homemaker	General term referring to a variety of non-skilled at-home services which may include some minor hands on care such as assistance with dressing and personal care, but also includes shopping, meal preparation, laundry services, housekeeping and similar activities. It is usually provided by employees of home health agencies.
Horizontal Integration	Consolidation or merger of organizations that provide similar types of care. Also see vertical integration.
Hospice	A facility or program that is licensed, certified or otherwise authorized by law, which provides supportive care of the terminally ill.
Hospice Care	Care that address the physical, spiritual, emotional, psychological, financial, and legal needs of the dying patient and the family; provided by an interdisciplinary team of professionals and perhaps volunteers in a variety of settings, including hospitals, freestanding facilities, and at home.
Hospital	An institution whose primary function is to provide inpatient diagnostic and therapeutic services for a variety of medical conditions, both surgical and non-surgical. In addition, most hospitals provide some outpatient services, particularly emergency care. Hospitals may be classified by length of stay (short-term or long-term), as teaching or non-teaching, by major types of services (psychiatric, tuberculosis, general, and other specialties, such as maternity, pediatric, or ear, nose and throat), and by type of ownership or control (Federal, State, or local government; for-profit and non-profit).
Hospital Affiliation	A contractual relationship between a health insurance plan and one or more hospitals whereby the hospital provides the inpatient benefits offered by the plan.
Hospital Alliance	A group of hospitals that have joined together to improve competitive positions and reduce costs by sharing common services and developing group purchasing programs.
Hospital Insurance Program	The compulsory portion of Medicare which relates to hospital care.
Hospital Market Basket	Components of the overall cost of hospital care.
Hospital Market Basket Index	A statistic of inflation of the overall cost of hospital care.
Hospitalist	A hospital-based internist who can be used to assume management of adult admissions from the primary care physician (PCP), freeing the PCP to do more office-based work. Hospitalists act as the hospital gatekeeper, to provide a valuable service by assessing the clinical needs of patients presenting to the emergency room and supervising inpatient care for those patients who are more critically ill, thereby reducing hospital inpatient costs.
Housekeeper	Non-skilled environmental services provided in the home including help with housekeeping, laundry, cleaning, shopping and meal preparation. Does not include any hands-on care such as personal care or assistance with activities of daily living.
Housing and Urban Development (HUD)	See U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Hybrid-Model HMO	A combination of at least two managed care organizational models that are molded into a single health plan. Since its features do not uniformly fit only one type of model, it is called a hybrid.