Dictionary

B

Background MortalityTermBackground Hazard, General-Population Hazard, Baseline Population Hazard

The rate of death from causes unrelated to the disease being studied, applied within a model alongside any additional disease-specific mortality risk.

Bad DebtTermUncollectible Debt, Uncollected Charges

Healthcare charges a provider is unable to collect from a patient who was expected to pay but did not.

Balance BillingTermExtra Billing, Provider Balance Charge

The practice of a provider billing a patient for the difference between their charge and what insurance actually paid, typically for out-of-network care.

Balance Billing ProtectionTermSurprise-Billing Protection, No-Balance-Bill Rule

A regulatory safeguard preventing providers from billing patients the difference between their charge and insurance payment, particularly for emergency care.

Balance SheetTermStatement of Financial Position

A financial statement reporting an organisation's assets, liabilities, and net worth at a specific point in time.

Balanced ScorecardTermBSC, Kaplan-Norton Scorecard

A strategic performance framework tracking organisational performance across multiple perspectives, such as financial, customer, and internal process, rather than finance alone.

Balancing MeasureTermQI Balancing Metric, Counterbalance Measure

A quality improvement metric tracked to ensure an improvement effort targeting one outcome does not inadvertently cause unintended harm elsewhere.

Bargaining TheoryConceptNash Bargaining, Negotiation Theory

Bargaining theory explains how negotiating parties divide the gains from reaching agreement, as when a payer and a manufacturer agree a drug price.

Bariatric CentreTermWeight-Management Centre, Obesity Surgery Centre

A specialist facility focused on treating severe obesity, offering surgical and non-surgical weight management with multidisciplinary support.

Bariatric Surgery EconomicsTermWeight Loss Surgery Economics, Metabolic Surgery Economics

The application of health economic evaluation to surgery for severe obesity, such as gastric bypass, typically offset over time by reduced comorbidities.

Barrier to ImplementationTermImplementation Barrier, Adoption Barrier

A specific factor impeding adoption of an evidence-based practice, such as inadequate resources, insufficient training, or resistance to changing workflows.

Base CaseConceptBase-Case Scenario, Central Estimate

The base case is a model's preferred set of inputs and assumptions and the primary results they produce, against which sensitivity analyses are compared.

Base RateTermBase Payment Rate, Standard Rate

The standard, unadjusted payment amount for a given payment classification, before any facility-specific or case-specific adjustment factors are applied.

Baseline RiskTermBaseline Event Rate, Untreated Risk

The probability of a clinical event occurring without the intervention being studied, typically estimated from a trial's comparator arm or observational data.

Basic Reproduction NumberConceptR0, R₀, Basic Reproductive Number, Basic Reproduction Ratio

The basic reproduction number is the expected number of secondary infections generated by a typical infectious individual introduced into a population at the model's specified disease-free state, under defined susceptibility, contact, and control conditions.

Basket of CountriesTermCountry Basket, Comparator Basket

The specific set of countries whose prices serve as the comparison reference when a country sets its own drug prices.

Basket TrialConceptBasket Study

A basket trial tests one targeted treatment in several diseases, usually tumour types, that share the same biomarker, with each disease forming a basket.

Bathtub HazardConceptU-Shaped Hazard, Bathtub Curve

A bathtub hazard is a U-shaped hazard that is high soon after an event such as surgery, falls to a lower stable level, then rises again as patients age.

Baumol EffectConceptBaumol Cost Disease, Service-Sector Cost Disease, Cost Disease

The Baumol effect is the rising relative cost of labour-intensive services such as health care as their pay tracks faster productivity growth elsewhere.

Bayes TheoremConceptBayes Rule, Bayes Law

Bayes theorem relates the probability of a hypothesis after observing evidence to its prior probability and the likelihood of that evidence under the hypothesis and its alternatives.

Bayesian Adaptive DesignConceptBayesian Adaptive Trial, Bayesian Adaptive Clinical Trial

Bayesian adaptive design is a clinical trial design in which pre-set rules on posterior or predictive probabilities trigger changes such as early stopping.

Bayesian AnalysisConceptBayesian Inference, Bayesian Statistics

Bayesian analysis combines a probability model for observed data with a prior distribution to produce a posterior distribution for unknown quantities.

Bayesian Analysis CEAConceptBayesian CEA, Bayesian Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Bayesian cost-effectiveness analysis updates prior evidence on costs and health effects with new data to estimate net benefit and decision uncertainty.

Bayesian Information CriterionConceptBIC, Schwarz Criterion

Bayesian information criterion (BIC) ranks models fitted to the same data, such as HTA survival curves, by fit with a penalty that grows with sample size.

Bayesian Meta-AnalysisConceptBayesian Evidence Synthesis, Bayesian Pooling

Bayesian meta-analysis combines prior distributions with results from several studies to give posterior and predictive distributions for an effect.

Bayesian OptimisationConceptBayesian Optimization, BayesOpt

Bayesian optimisation seeks the inputs that optimise a costly function, such as a model's fit to calibration targets, using a surrogate to pick each run.

Bed AssignmentTermBed Allocation, Patient Placement

The process of allocating a specific hospital bed to an admitted patient based on their clinical needs and facility capacity.

Bed CapacityTermInpatient Capacity, Bed Availability

The total number of hospital or facility beds available to accommodate patients, a key measure of inpatient service delivery capacity.

Bed Management SystemTermBed Tracking System, Capacity Management System

A technology or process tracking and coordinating hospital bed availability and assignment, intended to optimise patient flow and capacity use.

Bed TurnoverConceptBed Turnover Rate, Bed Use Factor

Bed turnover is the number of discharges, including deaths, per available hospital bed over a period, using the average number of beds available.

Bedside ReportingTermBedside Handoff, Bedside Handover

A handoff practice in which clinical staff exchange patient information directly at the bedside, often with the patient participating.

Beers CriteriaTermBeers List, Potentially Inappropriate Medication List

An explicit, widely used list identifying medications considered potentially inappropriate for older adults, developed through formal expert consensus.

Begg TestConceptBegg Rank Correlation Test, Begg and Mazumdar Test

The Begg test is a rank correlation test (Kendall's tau) for small-study effects in a meta-analysis, a possible sign of publication bias.

Behaviour ChangeTermBehavioural Change, Habit Modification

A modification in an individual's actions or habits, whether patient, clinician, or staff, achieved through deliberate intervention design.

Behaviour Change InterventionTermBCI, Behaviour Change Programme

A programme modifying a specific health-related behaviour, such as diet or adherence, built from one or more discrete behaviour change techniques.

Behaviour Change TechniqueConceptBCT, Behavior Change Technique

A standardised, replicable component of an intervention designed to modify a specific health-related behaviour, such as goal-setting or self-monitoring.

Behavioural AnalyticsTermBehavior Analytics, Behavioural Data Analytics

The application of data analysis to understand and predict patterns in health-relevant human behaviour, such as medication adherence.

Behavioural EconomicsTermBehavioral Economics, Psychology of Economic Decisions

The study of how psychological, cognitive and social factors cause economic decisions to depart from the predictions of standard rational-choice theory.

Behavioural Health Carve-OutTermBehavioral Health Carve-Out, Mental Health Carve-Out

An insurance design arrangement in which mental health and substance use services are managed separately from general medical benefits.

Behavioural TheoryTermBehavioral Theory, Theory of Economic Behaviour

A body of theory describing how psychological factors and cognitive limits shape economic decisions, departing from the assumption of fully rational behaviour.

Benchmark ComparisonTermComparative Benchmarking, Benchmark Analysis

An evaluation of an organisation's performance relative to an established reference standard or peer group, identifying strengths and improvement areas.

Benchmark DevelopmentTermBenchmark Setting, Reference-Standard Development

The process of establishing a reference standard against which actual performance, cost, or outcomes can be measured and compared.

Benchmark PriceTermBenchmark Spending Level, Target Price

A target spending level for a defined population or service category, used to determine whether actual spending fell above or below expected.

BenchmarkingConceptBenchmarking Process, Performance Benchmarking

The process of comparing an organisation's performance metrics against peer organisations or established standards, identifying strengths and improvement areas.

BeneficiaryTermCovered Individual, Plan Member

An individual eligible to receive benefits under a specific health insurance plan or government programme, such as Medicare or Medicaid.

Benefit AssessmentTermClinical Benefit Evaluation, Added Benefit Evaluation

A formal evaluation of the clinical benefit a treatment provides relative to an appropriate comparator, used to inform reimbursement and pricing decisions.

Benefit DesignConceptInsurance Benefit Structure, Plan Coverage Structure

The overall structure of a plan's covered services, cost-sharing, and utilisation management features, determining the actual protection it provides.

Benefit GapTermDoughnut Hole, Coverage Shortfall

A period or cost category for which an insurance plan provides reduced or no coverage, requiring the enrollee to pay a larger share than usual.

Benefit IncidenceTermBenefit Distribution Analysis, Spending Incidence

An analysis examining how the benefits of public healthcare spending are distributed across population subgroups, such as income quintiles.

Benefit LegislationTermMandated Benefit Law, Benefit Mandate

A law establishing or modifying the specific healthcare services or protections that must be provided under an insurance programme.