Glossary

Under HIPAA, this is a change adopted by the Secretary, through regulation, to a standard or an implementation specification.

A planned, systematic, and ongoing process to gather and organize data, and aggregate results in order to evaluate performance.

Activities related to the monitoring of standards that have been set for plan structure, operations, and quality improvement/assurance to determine that standards have been established, implemented, adhered to, etc.

A diseased state, often used in the context of a "morbidity rate" (i.e. The rate of disease or proportion of diseased people in a population). In common clinical usage, any disease state, including diagnosis and complications is referred to as morbidity.

The rate of illness in a population. The number of people ill during a time period divided by the number of people in the total population.

The death rate often made explicit for a particular characteristic (e.g. gender, sex, or specific cause of death). Mortality rate contains three essential elements: the number of people in a population exposed to the risk of death (denominator), a time factor, and the number of deaths occurring in the exposed population during a certain time period (the numerator).

A group health plan that is sponsored jointly by two or more employers or by employers and employee organizations.

A group health plan that is sponsored jointly by two or more employers or by employers and unions.

A health plan sponsored by two or more employers. These are generally plans that are offered through membership in an association or a trade group.

A group that promotes the development and improvement of state and national health information systems.