Government sponsored social insurance programs.

An independent agency within the Executive Branch of the United States Government. It administers a national social insurance program whereby employees, employers, and the self-employed pay contributions into pooled trust funds. Part of the contributions go into a separate hospital insurance trust fund for workers at age 65 to provide help with medical expenses. Other programs include the supplemental social security income program for the aged, blind, and disabled and the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance Program. It became an independent agency March 31, 1995. It had previously been part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, later the Department of Health and Human Services. (From United States Government Manual, 1994-95)

Insurance designed to compensate persons who lose wages because of illness or injury; insurance providing periodic payments that partially replace lost wages, salary, or other income when the insured is unable to work because of illness, injury, or disease. Individual and group disability insurance are two types of such coverage. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988, p207)

Regulations to assure protection of property and equipment.

Protective measures against unauthorized access to or interference with computer operating systems, telecommunications, or data structures, especially the modification, deletion, destruction, or release of data in computers. It includes methods of forestalling interference by computer viruses or so-called computer hackers aiming to compromise stored data.

Any behavior caused by or affecting another individual, usually of the same species.

Exploitation through misrepresentation of the facts or concealment of the purposes of the exploiter.

Criteria to determine eligibility of patients for medical care programs and services.

Support systems that provide assistance and encouragement to individuals with physical or emotional disabilities in order that they may better cope. Informal social support is usually provided by friends, relatives, or peers, while formal assistance is provided by churches, groups, etc.

Financial assistance for the impoverished elderly through public funding of programs, services, and individual income supplements.

Payments or services provided under stated circumstances under the terms of an insurance policy. In prepayment programs, benefits are the services the programs will provide at defined locations and to the extent needed.

Organized procedures for establishing patient identity, including use of bracelets, etc.

The production and movement of food items from point of origin to use or consumption.

The aggregate of social and cultural institutions, forms, patterns, and processes that influence the life of an individual or community.

Fixed sums paid regularly to individuals.

The separation of individuals or groups resulting in the lack of or minimizing of social contact and/or communication. This separation may be accomplished by physical separation, by social barriers and by psychological mechanisms. In the latter, there may be interaction but no real communication.

Persons with physical or mental disabilities that affect or limit their activities of daily living and that may require special accommodations.

The level of governmental organization and function below that of the national or country-wide government.

Referral by physicians to testing or treatment facilities in which they have financial interest. The practice is regulated by the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act of 1989.

Federal program, created by Public Law 89-97, Title XVIII-Health Insurance for the Aged, a 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act, that provides health insurance benefits to persons over the age of 65 and others eligible for Social Security benefits. It consists of two separate but coordinated programs: hospital insurance (MEDICARE PART A) and supplementary medical insurance (MEDICARE PART B). (Hospital Administration Terminology, AHA, 2d ed and A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, US House of Representatives, 1976)

A component of the Department of Health and Human Services to oversee and direct the Medicare and Medicaid programs and related Federal medical care quality control staffs. Name was changed effective June 14, 2001.

The perceiving of attributes, characteristics, and behaviors of one's associates or social groups.

A stratum of people with similar position and prestige; includes social stratification. Social class is measured by criteria such as education, occupation, and income.

The state of being engaged in an activity or service for wages or salary.

Tax on the net income of an individual, organization, or business.

Devices which are very resistant to wear and may be used over a long period of time. They include items such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, artificial limbs, etc.

Adaptation of the person to the social environment. Adjustment may take place by adapting the self to the environment or by changing the environment. (From Campbell, Psychiatric Dictionary, 1996)

Training of the mentally or physically disabled in work skills so they may be returned to regular employment utilizing these skills.

Determination of the degree of a physical, mental, or emotional handicap. The diagnosis is applied to legal qualification for benefits and income under disability insurance and to eligibility for Social Security and workmen's compensation benefits.

The state of being retired from one's position or occupation.

Social structure of a group as it relates to the relative social rank of dominance status of its members. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 8th ed.)

The voluntary portion of Medicare, known as the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Program, that includes physician's services, home health care, medical services, outpatient hospital services, and laboratory, pathology, and radiology services. All persons entitled to Medicare Part A may enroll in Medicare Part B on a monthly premium basis.

Platforms that provide the ability and tools to create and publish information accessed via the INTERNET. Generally these platforms have three characteristics with content user generated, high degree of interaction between creator and viewer, and easily integrated with other sites.

The use of community resources, individual case work, or group work to promote the adaptive capacities of individuals in relation to their social and economic environments. It includes social service agencies.

An absence from work permitted because of illness or the number of days per year for which an employer agrees to pay employees who are sick. (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1981)

Social rank-order established by certain behavioral patterns.

Social and economic factors that characterize the individual or group within the social structure.

Disciplines concerned with the interrelationships of individuals in a social environment including social organizations and institutions. Includes Sociology and Anthropology.

Insurance coverage providing compensation and medical benefits to individuals because of work-connected injuries or disease.

Revenues or receipts accruing from business enterprise, labor, or invested capital.

The process whereby a society changes from a rural to an urban way of life. It refers also to the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas.

An Act prohibiting a health plan from establishing lifetime limits or annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for any participant or beneficiary after January 1, 2014. It permits a restricted annual limit for plan years beginning prior to January 1, 2014. It provides that a health plan shall not be prevented from placing annual or lifetime per-beneficiary limits on covered benefits. The Act sets up a competitive health insurance market.

The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (HEALTH CARE COSTS) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers.

Provisions of an insurance policy that require the insured to pay some portion of covered expenses. Several forms of sharing are in use, e.g., deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. Cost sharing does not refer to or include amounts paid in premiums for the coverage. (From Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)

A system wherein reimbursement rates are set, for a given period of time, prior to the circumstances giving rise to actual reimbursement claims.

The compulsory portion of Medicare that is known as the Hospital Insurance Program. All persons 65 years and older who are entitled to benefits under the Old Age, Survivors, Disability and Health Insurance Program or railroad retirement, persons under the age of 65 who have been eligible for disability for more than two years, and insured workers (and their dependents) requiring renal dialysis or kidney transplantation are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A.

The state of not being engaged in a gainful occupation.

Social process whereby the values, attitudes, or institutions of society, such as education, family, religion, and industry become modified. It includes both the natural process and action programs initiated by members of the community.

Large vessels propelled by power or sail used for transportation on rivers, seas, oceans, or other navigable waters. Boats are smaller vessels propelled by oars, paddles, sail, or power; they may or may not have a deck.

All deaths reported in a given population.

Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.

Components of a national health care system which administer specific services, e.g., national health insurance.

Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services.

The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure.

The science, art or practice of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock.

The state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed, 1993)

Review of claims by insurance companies to determine liability and amount of payment for various services. The review may also include determination of eligibility of the claimant or beneficiary or of the provider of the benefit; determination that the benefit is covered or not payable under another policy; or determination that the service was necessary and of reasonable cost and quality.

Emotional attachment to someone or something in the environment.

Official records of individual deaths including the cause of death certified by a physician, and any other required identifying information.

The degree of closeness or acceptance an individual or group feels toward another individual or group.

Insurance providing coverage of medical, surgical, or hospital care in general or for which there is no specific heading.

Federal program, created by Public Law 89-97, Title XIX, a 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act, administered by the states, that provides health care benefits to indigent and medically indigent persons.

Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.

The creation and maintenance of medical and vital records in multiple institutions in a manner that will facilitate the combined use of the records of identified individuals.

Payment by a third-party payer in a sum equal to the amount expended by a health care provider or facility for health services rendered to an insured or program beneficiary. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)

Computer-based systems for input, storage, display, retrieval, and printing of information contained in a patient's medical record.

Situations affecting a significant number of people, that are believed to be sources of difficulty or threaten the stability of the community, and that require programs of amelioration.

The level of health of the individual, group, or population as subjectively assessed by the individual or by more objective measures.

Diseases caused by factors involved in one's employment.

Assessment of physiological capacities in relation to job requirements. It is usually done by measuring certain physiological (e.g., circulatory and respiratory) variables during a gradually increasing workload until specific limitations occur with respect to those variables.

Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.

Laws concerned with manufacturing, dispensing, and marketing of drugs.

Generally refers to the amount of protection available and the kind of loss which would be paid for under an insurance contract with an insurer. (Slee & Slee, Health Care Terms, 2d ed)

Unforeseen occurrences, especially injuries in the course of work-related activities.

The state of society as it exists or in flux. While it usually refers to society as a whole in a specified geographical or political region, it is applicable also to restricted strata of a society.

Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with LONGITUDINAL STUDIES which are followed over a period of time.

Organized institutions which provide services to ameliorate conditions of need or social pathology in the community.

Abstract standards or empirical variables in social life which are believed to be important and/or desirable.

An aspect of personal behavior or lifestyle, environmental exposure, or inborn or inherited characteristic, which, on the basis of epidemiologic evidence, is known to be associated with a health-related condition considered important to prevent.

Federal, state, or local government organized methods of financial assistance.

Behaviors which are at variance with the expected social norm and which affect other individuals.

The desire for FOOD generated by a sensation arising from the lack of food in the STOMACH.

Insurance providing for payment of services rendered by the pharmacist. Services include the preparation and distribution of medical products.

An interactive process whereby members of a community are concerned for the equality and rights of all.

Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.

The branch of psychology concerned with the effects of group membership upon the behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of an individual.

A personality trait rendering the individual acceptable in social or interpersonal relations. It is related to social acceptance, social approval, popularity, social status, leadership qualities, or any quality making him a socially desirable companion.

The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.

Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.

The process by which an aspect of self image is developed based on in-group preference or ethnocentrism and a perception of belonging to a social or cultural group. (From APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 8th ed.)

A system containing any combination of computers, computer terminals, printers, audio or visual display devices, or telephones interconnected by telecommunications equipment or cables: used to transmit or receive information. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)

Based on known statistical data, the number of years which any person of a given age may reasonably expected to live.

Involvement in community activities or programs.

Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.

The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others.

Behavioral or attitudinal compliance with recognized social patterns or standards.

Maleness or femaleness as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from SEX CHARACTERISTICS, anatomical or physiological manifestations of sex, and from SEX DISTRIBUTION, the number of males and females in given circumstances.

Facilities which provide programs for rehabilitating the mentally or physically disabled individuals.

Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.

The systems and processes involved in the establishment, support, management, and operation of registers, e.g., disease registers.

Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of facts and data garnered from material of a specialized subject area and made available for analysis and application. The collection can be automated by various contemporary methods for retrieval. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, BIBLIOGRAPHIC which is restricted to collections of bibliographic references.

Factors which produce cessation of all vital bodily functions. They can be analyzed from an epidemiologic viewpoint.

Studies in which individuals or populations are followed to assess the outcome of exposures, procedures, or effects of a characteristic, e.g., occurrence of disease.

Any enhancement of a motivated behavior in which individuals do the same thing with some degree of mutual stimulation and consequent coordination.

The state of estrangement individuals feel in cultural settings that they view as foreign, unpredictable, or unacceptable.

Anxiety disorders in which the essential feature is persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that the individual feels compelled to avoid. The individual recognizes the fear as excessive or unreasonable.

Procedures for finding the mathematical function which best describes the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. In linear regression (see LINEAR MODELS) the relationship is constrained to be a straight line and LEAST-SQUARES ANALYSIS is used to determine the best fit. In logistic regression (see LOGISTIC MODELS) the dependent variable is qualitative rather than continuously variable and LIKELIHOOD FUNCTIONS are used to find the best relationship. In multiple regression, the dependent variable is considered to depend on more than a single independent variable.

A situation in which the level of living of an individual, family, or group is below the standard of the community. It is often related to a specific income level.

A method of differentiating individuals based on the analysis of qualitative or quantitative biological traits or patterns. This process which has applications in forensics and identity theft prevention includes DNA profiles or DNA fingerprints, hand fingerprints, automated facial recognition, iris scan, hand geometry, retinal scan, vascular patterns, automated voice pattern recognition, and ultrasound of fingers.