Dictionary

The Dictionary provides concise definitions of health economics terms, arranged alphabetically for quick reference. Use it to understand unfamiliar terminology or confirm the meaning of a specific term.

1–50 of 152 terms matching “HAS”

A

Access NegotiationPayer Negotiation, Price-and-Terms Negotiation
The process by which a supplier and payer or purchaser agree the price, reimbursement, eligibility and other conditions governing patient access to a health technology.
Acquisition CostPurchase Cost, Invoice Cost
The price a provider or payer pays to obtain a drug or medical product, before accounting for administration or monitoring costs.
Activity LimitationActivity Restriction, Task Difficulty
A difficulty an individual has in executing a task or action, such as walking, as classified within the WHO framework for functioning and disability.
Administrative CensoringEnd-of-Study Censoring, Administrative Right Censoring
A form of right censoring occurring because a study reaches its planned end date before every participant has experienced the event of interest.
Alliance ModelAlliance Contracting, Collaborative Alliance
A health system arrangement where multiple independent organisations formally collaborate while retaining autonomy, coordinating around shared objectives such as purchasing power.

B

Best PracticeLeading Practice, Proven Practice
A method that has consistently demonstrated superior results compared to alternatives, typically identified through rigorous evidence and professional consensus.
Best PriceLowest Acquisition Price, Manufacturer Lowest Price
A US Medicaid pricing benchmark, the lowest price a manufacturer sells a drug to any purchaser, used to calculate required rebates.
Blame-Free ReportingNo-Blame Reporting, Non-Punitive Reporting
An approach to safety incident reporting emphasising systemic factors behind an error rather than assigning individual blame, encouraging more open reporting.
Budget AmendmentBudget Revision, Budget Modification
A formal revision to an approved budget made after the budget cycle has begun, usually to reflect unexpected cost or demand changes.

C

Cancer SurvivorCancer Survivorship, Post-Treatment Patient
A person who has completed active cancer treatment and continues to live beyond their diagnosis, a growing population as outcomes have improved.
Citation TrackingCitation Chasing, Reference Tracking
A literature search technique identifying further relevant studies by examining a key paper's reference list or later papers that cite it.
Clinical ResponseResponder Status, Response to Treatment
A measure of whether a patient has experienced a predefined, clinically meaningful improvement following treatment, often expressed as a responder proportion.
CompetenceLegal Decision Authority, Decisional Standing
A legal determination of whether an individual has the legal authority to make their own decisions, distinct from clinical capacity assessment.
Conditional ProbabilityConditional Chance, Probability Given an Event
Conditional probability is the probability of an event within the restricted set of outcomes in which a specified conditioning event has occurred.

D

DemandQuantity Demanded, Purchase Willingness
The quantity of a good or service consumers are willing and able to purchase at a given price over a specified period.
DiscountPurchaser Price Cut, Manufacturer Reduction
A reduction from a treatment's list price, negotiated between a manufacturer and a purchaser such as a payer or wholesaler.
Dose EscalationDose-Escalation Study, Escalation Phase
A structured early-phase process progressively increasing an investigational treatment's dose across successive small groups to identify the maximum tolerated dose.

E

End-of-Life CostTerminal-Phase Cost, Last-Year-of-Life Cost
Healthcare expenditure incurred during the final period of a patient's life, often a disproportionately large share of total lifetime healthcare costs.
Experience GoodPost-Purchase-Assessed Good, Experience Product
A good whose quality can only be judged by the consumer after purchase and use, unlike a search good assessed beforehand.

F

First-Order UncertaintyStochastic Uncertainty, Individual-Level Variability
Uncertainty arising from variation among individual patients within a modelled population, unlike parameter uncertainty concerning imperfect knowledge of a true average value.

H

HASHaute Autorite de Sante, French National Authority for Health
The French National Authority for Health, conducting assessment including SMR and ASMR ratings that inform pricing and reimbursement decisions.

M

MandateCompulsory Coverage Rule, Insurance-Purchase Requirement
A legal requirement compelling an action related to health insurance, such as individuals maintaining coverage or employers offering it.
Metropolis-HastingsMH Algorithm, Metropolis Algorithm
A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm generating samples by proposing candidate values and accepting or rejecting them by a rule ensuring convergence.
Monte Carlo IntegrationMC Integration, Stochastic Integration
A numerical technique estimating a complex integral's value by sampling random points repeatedly and averaging them, useful when no closed-form solution exists.

P

Passive PurchasingPassive Reimbursement, Budget-Following Purchasing
A financing approach in which a payer simply reimburses whatever services are provided, without negotiating price or monitoring quality.
Phase I DesignPhase 1 Design, First-in-Human Trial Design
The methodological structure of an early-phase trial, typically small and focused on safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics rather than efficacy.
Phase I TrialPhase 1 Trial, First-in-Human Trial
The first stage of human clinical testing for a new treatment, typically small and assessing safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics rather than efficacy.
Phase II DesignPhase 2 Design, Proof-of-Concept Trial Design
The methodological structure of a mid-stage trial, typically moderate in size, providing preliminary efficacy evidence alongside continued safety assessment.
Phase II TrialPhase 2 Trial, Proof-of-Concept Trial
A trial after phase I, typically enrolling a moderate number of participants to gather preliminary efficacy evidence while continuing safety monitoring.
Phase III DesignPhase 3 Design, Confirmatory Trial Blueprint
The methodological structure of a large-scale, definitive trial confirming efficacy and further characterising safety in a broader population, typically supporting approval.
Phase III TrialPhase 3 Trial, Confirmatory Efficacy Trial
A large-scale trial confirming a treatment's efficacy and further characterising its safety in a broad population, typically the primary basis for approval.
Phase IV TrialPhase 4 Trial, Post-Approval Study
A trial conducted after a treatment has already reached the market, gathering further safety data or fulfilling a post-marketing regulatory commitment.
Post-Marketing SurveillancePhase IV Surveillance, Post-Approval Monitoring
The ongoing monitoring of a drug's safety and effectiveness after regulatory approval, capturing information not always evident from pre-approval trials.
PurchasingCommissioning, Service Procurement
The process by which a payer allocates pooled healthcare funds to providers in exchange for delivering services to a covered population.
Purchasing Power AdjustmentPPP Adjustment, Cross-Country Cost Adjustment
The conversion of cost data across countries using purchasing power parity rather than market exchange rates, to reflect actual local costs.
Purchasing Power ParityCommon-Basket Comparison, International Price Comparison
A method of comparing economic value across countries based on the relative cost of a common basket of goods and services, rather than exchange rates.

R

Random ErrorStochastic Error, Irreducible Noise
Variation in results attributable to chance alone, from the statistical variability of sampling, unlike systematic error, which reflects a consistent directional bias.
Random SearchStochastic Search, Randomised Sampling Search
An optimisation technique evaluating an objective function at randomly sampled points in the parameter space rather than a systematic grid.
Recommended Phase 2 DoseRP2D, Phase II Dose
The dose identified during phase I dose-finding studies as offering the best balance of efficacy and tolerability, carried forward into phase II trials.
Run-In PeriodLead-In Period, Pre-Randomisation Phase
An initial trial phase, before randomisation, during which all participants receive a common intervention, used to exclude likely non-adherent or non-responsive individuals.

S

ScopingScoping Phase, Scope Definition
The initial assessment stage in which the specific boundaries, including technology, population, comparators, and outcomes, are formally defined.
Seamless Trial DesignSeamless Phase 2/3 Design, Inferentially Seamless Design
An adaptive design combining traditionally separate phase II and III trials into one continuous study, avoiding an intervening design and startup gap.
Stochastic AnalysisStochastic Sensitivity Analysis, Random-Input Analysis
An analysis in which a model incorporates randomness explicitly, so repeated runs under the same inputs can produce different results, unlike a deterministic model.
Stochastic Frontier AnalysisSFA, Parametric Frontier Analysis
A parametric method estimating relative efficiency of comparable units by modelling an efficiency frontier while accounting for random statistical noise.
Stochastic ModelRandom Model, Probabilistic Model
A model in which one or more inputs are random variables drawn from a probability distribution, producing a range of possible outcomes.
Stochastic ProgrammingOptimisation under Uncertainty, Recourse Programming
An optimisation framework incorporating parameter uncertainty directly into the process, seeking a solution that performs well across possible parameter values.
Stochastic SimulationRandom Simulation, Probabilistic Simulation
Stochastic simulation represents a system in which at least one event, transition, time or outcome is generated probabilistically.
Strategic PurchasingActive Purchasing, Strategic Commissioning
A financing approach where a payer actively negotiates prices, selects high-performing providers, and designs incentivising payment mechanisms, unlike passive purchasing.
SurvivorshipLife After Cancer, Post-Treatment Phase
The state of living with, through, and beyond a cancer diagnosis, covering the period from diagnosis onward regardless of ongoing treatment.

V

Value-Based PurchasingVBP Purchasing, Value-Based Commissioning
A purchasing approach that connects provider selection, contracting or payment to measured care quality, outcomes or efficiency for a defined population.