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 249 terms matching “Risk”

A

Absolute Risk: The probability that an individual in a defined population will experience a specific outcome over a given period, without reference to a comparison.
Absolute Risk Reduction: The arithmetic difference between the absolute risk of an outcome in a control group and in a treatment group.
Advanced Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation applying sophisticated statistical methods, such as multivariate survival modelling, to estimate the probability and size of adverse outcomes.
Applied Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation conducted for a specific clinical population or insurance product rather than as a general methodological exercise.
Attributable RiskAR: The difference in risk of an outcome between an exposed group and an unexposed group, the portion attributable to the exposure itself.

B

Baseline Risk: The probability of a clinical event occurring without the intervention being studied, typically estimated from a trial's comparator arm or observational data.
Benefit-Risk Assessment: A structured evaluation comparing a technology's expected clinical benefits against its potential harms, used to inform approval and coverage decisions.

C

Cardiovascular Risk Screening: A population strategy assessing individuals for risk factors, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, to identify who would benefit from preventive intervention.
Clinical Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation focused on estimating a patient's probability of experiencing a specific clinical event, such as disease progression.
Comparative Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation that benchmarks risk levels across different populations, treatments, or insurance products rather than a single group alone.
Competing Risks: A situation where a person is at risk of more than one type of event, so one event's occurrence prevents another from ever happening.
Comprehensive Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation considering multiple risk factors and outcome types at once, rather than a single risk dimension in isolation.
Concurrent Risk Adjustment: A risk adjustment method using diagnoses observed in the same period costs are predicted for, unlike prospective adjustment using prior period data.
Contemporary Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation built around current epidemiological and actuarial data rather than historical risk patterns that may no longer be representative.

D

Diagnosis-Based Risk Score: A numerical estimate of expected future healthcare costs, calculated using documented medical diagnoses alongside demographic characteristics.
Downside Risk: A feature of a value-based arrangement in which a provider is financially responsible for spending exceeding a benchmark, unlike an upside-only arrangement.

E

Emerging Risk Evaluation: A risk evaluation applied to a newly identified health threat or risk factor for which established estimation methods do not yet exist.

R

Risk: The probability that a particular health outcome will occur within a defined population over a specified period of time.
Risk Adjustment: A methodology adjusting payments to insurers or providers based on the health status and expected costliness of the population they cover.
Risk Adjustment Design: The methodological choices underlying a risk adjustment system, including which factors are incorporated, how weighted, and adjustment timing.
Risk Adjustment Mechanism: The specific formula used to calculate payment adjustments based on predicted health risk, incorporating diagnoses, demographics, and prior utilisation.
Risk Analytics: The application of data analysis to identify and quantify an individual's or population's risk of a specific future health outcome.
Risk Assessment: A systematic process identifying and evaluating compliance vulnerabilities within an organisation, used to prioritise monitoring and auditing efforts.
Risk Classification: The process of categorising individuals by expected healthcare costs or risk level, used as an input to pricing or risk adjustment.
Risk Corridor: A risk-sharing mechanism where government shares in an insurer's unexpectedly high losses or profits relative to a projected target, stabilising a new market.
Risk DifferenceRD: The absolute difference between the risk of an outcome in one group and in another, the excess or reduced risk from an exposure.
Risk Equalization: A mechanism in multi-payer systems redistributing funds among competing insurers based on their enrolled populations' relative risk profile.
Risk Evaluation: A formal assessment of a drug's potential safety risks, sometimes resulting in a required mitigation strategy such as restricted distribution or mandatory counselling.
Risk Factor: A characteristic, behaviour, or exposure associated with an increased likelihood of a disease or health outcome, without necessarily being an established direct cause.
Risk Management Plan: A required document outlining measures a manufacturer will implement to identify, characterise, and minimise a treatment's risks over its market life.
Risk of Bias: The degree to which a study's design, conduct, or analysis may have introduced systematic errors distorting its findings from the truth.
Risk of Bias Assessment: A structured evaluation of a study's methodological quality, examining domains such as randomisation and blinding, to judge how much confidence its results deserve.
Risk of Mortality: A classification indicating the likelihood a patient will die during hospitalisation, based on diagnoses and clinical characteristics, used to risk-adjust comparisons.
Risk Pool: The group whose healthcare costs are collectively financed through a shared insurance arrangement, with premiums covering those who become ill.
Risk Pooling: The insurance mechanism of combining many individuals' financial risk into a shared fund, letting the sick be financed by the healthy.
Risk Prediction Model: A statistical model estimating an individual's probability of a specific future health outcome based on current characteristics and risk factors.
Risk Protection: The degree to which a financing system shields individuals from the financial consequences of illness, covering coverage breadth and depth.
Risk Rating: A method setting premiums based on an individual's or group's specific assessed risk level, unlike a uniform community rating.
Risk RatioRR: A measure calculated as the ratio of risk in one group compared to another, synonymous with relative risk for event comparisons.
Risk Retention: The portion of financial risk an insurer or self-insured employer chooses to retain itself, rather than transferring to a reinsurer.
Risk Score: A numerical value representing an individual's predicted relative healthcare cost, calculated using a risk adjustment model.
Risk Selection: The practice by which insurers end up enrolling a disproportionately healthier or sicker population than the market average, distorting fair competition.
Risk Sharing: An arrangement distributing financial risk between two or more parties, such as an insurer and reinsurer, rather than one bearing it alone.
Risk Sharing Agreement: A formal arrangement distributing the financial or clinical uncertainty of a new treatment's real-world performance between manufacturer and payer.
Risk Sharing Design: The specific structure of a risk-sharing arrangement, including the threshold at which sharing begins and the proportion of costs each party bears above it.
Risk Sharing Scheme: An arrangement distributing the financial or clinical uncertainty of a new treatment's real-world performance between manufacturer and payer, often linked to outcomes.
Risk Stratification: The process of classifying patients into distinct groups by their level of risk for an outcome, using demographic or clinical characteristics.
Risk Transfer: The process by which one party shifts responsibility for financial risk to another, typically in exchange for a premium or fee.
Risk-Adjusted Measure: A performance metric statistically adjusted for differences in patient population risk profile, ensuring fair comparison across providers of differing complexity.
Risk-Sharing Rebate: A rebate mechanism in which the amount a manufacturer repays a payer depends on how a treatment actually performs in real-world use.