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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.

Impairment	Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function from injury or disease. It represents a deviation from the person's usual biomedical state.
In-Kind Resources	Human, cash or other resources or capability located within an agency, organization or institution as opposed to originating in the outside environment. Often used as a match for other funds. Also see match certain grants.
Incentive Plans	Elements of health benefit plans that emphasize particular types of coverage and therefore serve to promote enrollee use of those benefits.
Incentives	Economic benefits given to providers to motivate efficiency in-patient care management.
Incidence	The number of new cases of a disease in a specified population over a defined period of time.
Incurred but not Reported Expenses (IBNR)	This term refers to a financial accounting of all services that have been performed, but have not yet been invoiced or recorded.
Incurred Claims	A term that refers to the actual carrier liability for a specified period and includes all claims with dates of services within a specified period, usually called the experience period. Due to the time lag between dates of services and the dates claims payments are actually processed, adjustment must be made to any paid claims data to determine incurred claims.
Indemnity Benefits	Benefits for which the insurance company payment is a fixed dollar amount.
Indemnity Health Plan	Similar to a fee-for-service plan in which the insurer pays for all or part of covered services that the patient chooses to purchase from health care providers.
Indemnity Insurance	Insurance providing a stipulated level of reimbursement for hospital/medical expenses, without regard to the actual expenses incurred during hospitalization.
Indemnity Plans	An insurance policy in which beneficiaries are allowed total freedom to choose their health care providers. Those providers are reimbursed a set fee each time they deliver a service. Reimbursement is usually limited to a percentage of customary and reasonable charges (which may be less than the billed amount). Also seefee for service.
Independent Case Management	Comprehensive professional coordination of the health resources necessary to the support of the patient's diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, facilitating the ability of the patient to function with as much independence as possible through the convergence of physical, psychological, social, functional, and personal services. The case manager may organize services that are more cost-effective and appropriate to the needs of the patient that would not otherwise be covered under a beneficiary's health benefit.
Independent Living	Residential option where no assistance is needed with ADLs or most IADLs. A senior housing apartment complex is an example of independent living.
Independent Medical Evaluation (IME)	An examination carried out by an impartial health care provider, generally board certified, for the purpose of resolving a dispute related to the nature and extent of an illness or injury.
Independent Practice Association (IPA)	Organization of physicians who have joined together for purposes of contracting with HMOs, PPOs, or other payers. IPA physicians continue to practice in solo settings or in groups, maintain their offices and regular practices, and usually are reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis.
Indigent Care	See indigent medical care and charity care.
Indigent Medical Care	Care given by health care providers to patients who are unable to pay for it.
Indirect Costs	The costs that are shared by many services concurrently, for example, maintenance, administration, equipment, electricity, water. Also referred to as overhead costs.
Individual Case Management	See independent case management.
Individual Health Care Account	A method of financing health care by giving tax advantage to individuals who establish and maintain personal accounts for health care purposes; similar to an Individual Retirement Account for retirement purposes. Also referred to as medical savings account.
Individual Health Insurance	Health services contract or insurance policy which is purchased by an individual and which covers the individual (and usually the person's dependents) in contrast to a group insurance.
Individual Insurance	Policies purchased without the benefit of group sponsorship that provide protection to the policyholder and/or his family. Sometimes called personal insurance.
Individual Practice Association Model (IPA)	The individual practice association contracts with independent physicians who work in their own private practices, and see fee-for-service patients as well as HMOenrollees. They are paid by capitation for the HMO patients and by conventional means for their fee-for-service patients. Physicians belonging to the IPA guarantee that the care needed by each patient for whom they are responsible will fall under a certain amount of money. They guarantee this by allowing the HMO to withhold an amount of their payments (i.e., usually 20% per year). If, by the end of the year, the physician's cost for treatment falls under the set amount, then the physician receives his entire "withhold fund". If the opposite is true, the HMO can then withhold any part of this amount, at its discretion, from the fund. Essentially, the physician is put "at risk" for keeping down the treatment cost. This is the key to the HMO's financial viability. Also called independent practice association.
Individual Tax Credits	Instead of employer or government health insurance coverage, all individuals would be required to purchase coverage directly from the insurer of choice. Individuals could participate in a group such as an Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative (HIPC), where they can pay for their own insurance and receive a refundable tax credit to cover some portion of their health insurance costs. Low-income individuals with no tax liability may receive a voucher to purchase health insurance.
Infant Mortality Rate	Deaths in the first year of life per 1000 births. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, 50% of these deaths are due to lifestyle factors, 20% due to environmental factors, 20% due to biological factors, and 10% due to inadequate health care.
Inflation Protection	An option offered on some long-term care policies which can increase the maximum daily and lifetime benefits to combat inflation. The protection is generally 5% per year, but varies from policy to policy as to whether the increase is calculated at simple or compound interest.
Inflation Rider	See inflation protection.
Informal Care	Care received at home from friends, neighbors or relatives who are not health care professionals. The vast majority of LTC services in the home are provided by informal caregivers.
Informal Support	See informal care.
Informed Consent	Informed consent is a legal term referring to the right of individuals to make informed medical treatment decisions. Under State law, informed consent typically includes the right to be told of one's medical condition and prognosis, the risks and benefits associated with a recommended procedure or course of treatment, and the risks and benefits of other available treatment options, including the option of refusing treatment. When a person becomes mentally incapacitated, his or her right to give or withhold informed consent typically passes to the person's legal representative, usually an agent or attorney-in-fact under a durable power of attorney, a court-appointed guardian, or a close family member.
Inlier	A patient whose length of stay or service cost resembles those of most other patients. Also see outlier.
Inpatient	A patient who has been admitted at least overnight to a hospital or other health facility and occupies a hospital bed, crib, or bassinet while under observation, care, and diagnosis.
Inpatient Services	Items and services furnished to a patient staying overnight in a hospital including bed and board, nursing and related services, diagnostic and therapeutic services, and medical or surgical services.
Inside Limits	Provisions that restrict the liability of an insurance plan. Various kinds of maximums can be imposed for specific services within a plan's overall limits. One example would be the limits on services for chemical dependency and mental illness in specific settings.
Insolvency	A legal determination occurring when a managed care plan no longer has the financial reserves or other arrangements to meet its contractual obligations to patients and subcontractors.
Institutional Care	Usually refers to nursing home or hospital care.
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL)	Normal day-to-day housekeeping activities such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. with which functionally impaired individuals may need assistance. Also see activities of daily living.
Insurance	Sharing the costs of the risk of incurring losses, whether for health expenses or property and casualty losses, across a base large enough to protect any one entity against the actual costs of an incurred loss. The costs of spreading the risk are assumed to be less than the costs of an actual loss. The insured group or insurance company is at financial risk for assuming the guarantee against loss for the specific instance.
Insurance Market Reform	The goal of most insurance market reform initiatives is to materially change the nature of competition in health insurance markets by prohibiting, or severely limiting, the marketing, rating, and underwriting practices that identify and select the most favorable risks while rejecting the least favorable. Requirements that often accompany insurance market reform proposals include prohibition of experience rating in favor of modified community rating, open enrollment, use of a standard benefit package and elimination of preexisting conditions exclusions. Imposition of such regulations would have the effect of reducing the rate differential among groups, and among competing insurers. However, while premium costs would fall for some groups, they would rise for others.
Insurance Reform	Changing insurance companies' practices that prevent some consumers from obtaining health care coverage. Also see insurance market reform.
Insured Claims Loss Ratio	The result of incurred claims divided by premiums. A defined time period is usually specified.
Insurer	An insurance company, managed care plan, government program, or "self-funded" group responsible for providing coverage.
Insurer HMO	An HMO whose primary purpose is to provide health insurance and who contracts with independent providers for the health care network.
Integrated Care	An approach used to manage all aspects of health care including primary care, acute care and long term care.
Integrated Delivery System	Collaboration between physicians and hospitals for a variety of purposes. Some models of integration include physician-hospital organization, management-service organization, group practice without walls, integrated provider organization and medical foundation.
Integrated Provider Network (IPN)	A group of hospitals, physicians and ancillary providers which have joined together to create a system which provides comprehensive health care services through a coordinated, client-centered continuum designed to improve health care services in specified geographic markets also known as an integrated delivery system (IDS) or an integrated delivery and financing system, especially when the organization offers an insurance plan. Also see community care network.
Integrated Services Network (ISN)	See integrated provider network.
Intensive Care Units (ICU)	Highly specialized care requiring sophisticated technologies given to patients who are in danger of disability or death.
Intermediary	The term used for Medicare contractors who process Medicare Part A claims.
Intermediate Care	A degree of nursing care evaluation that is less than that provided for skilled nursing care, but greater than that provided for custodial care. This level of care provides a planned, continuous program of nursing care that is preventive or rehabilitative in nature.
Intermediate Care Facility (ICF)	A facility providing an intermediate level of care to individuals who do not require the degree of care and treatment that a hospital or skilled nursing facility is designed to provide, but who do require care above the level of room and board.
Intermediate Care Facility for Mentally Retarded Persons (ICF/MR)	Optional Medicaidservices which provide residential care and services for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Intern	A physician in training in the first year after graduating from medical school. Also see resident.
International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition (ICD-9)	Widely used classification system employed to codify diseases and medical conditions.
Intervention Strategy	A generic term used in public health to describe a program or policy designed to have an impact on an illness or disease.
Intractable Pain	Pain for which there is no cure.