Glossary of Healthcare Terms

The designation assigned to a practitioner who has achieved licensure.

Occupational therapists care for patients with mental, physical, developmental, and emotional conditions that impair their ability to undertake daily tasks, occupational tasks, or both.

Make change to taxes and other various payment systems, including fraud and abuse, that impact healthcare delivery.

"A model under which the ACO may share savings with the Medicare program, if it meets the requirements for doing so, but is not liable for sharing any losses incurred under subpart G of this part."

A form of benchmarking similar to both process and performance benchmarking that targets noncentral work or business processes for improvement based on the application of the results.

Includes computerized management information systems that produce customized reports on the financial, operating and patient outcome performance of the subject enterprise to aid in future management decision-making and strategic planning.

The space and equipment utilized in the provision of professional dental services.

Ophthalmologists are medical doctors (M.D.) who specialize in all aspects of eyecare including diagnosis, management, and surgery of ocular diseases and disorders. The primary distinction between an optometrist and ophthalmologist is that an ophthalmologist is a medical doctor and an optometrist is not.

Optical coherence tomography is a technique that "creates images by use of special beams of light. . . . The OCT machine can create a contour map of the optic nerve, optic cup and measure the retinal nerve fiber thickness."

Opticians are trained in designing, measuring, fitting, and adjusting optical lenses and frames according to a patient

Optometrists are allied health professionals trained to "examine, diagnose, treat, and manage disease that affect the eye or vision." They also treat injuries and disorders of the visual system, the eye, and associated structures, as well as identify related systemic conditions affecting the eye.

Optometrists are the primary providers of eye and vision-related care, providing primary eye care to two-thirds of U.S. patients. Optometrists are trained to examine patients

Liquidation value at which the asset or assets are sold over a reasonable period of time to maximize proceeds received.

The development of the internal systems and culture of an organization.

"Orthotics are shoe inserts that are intended to correct an abnormal, or irregular, walking pattern . . . to make standing, walking, and running more comfortable and efficient by altering slightly the angles at which the foot strikes a walking or running surface." Podiatrists may prescribe orthotics to control foot movement post-surgery or as a "conservative approach" to minor foot problems.