Dictionary

C

Corporate Integrity AgreementTermCIA, Integrity Agreement

A binding agreement between a healthcare organisation and a government oversight agency requiring compliance measures and ongoing monitoring, typically after enforcement.

Correct Coding InitiativeTermCCI, NCCI Edits

A US Medicare programme identifying and preventing inappropriate payment for services that should not be billed together, based on coding conventions.

Corrective ActionTermCAP, Remedial Action, Remediation, Corrective Measures, Performance Correction

A step or set of steps taken to remedy an identified compliance deficiency or violation, intended to prevent its recurrence.

CorrelationConceptStatistical Association, Co-Movement

Correlation is how strongly two variables move together or in opposite directions, such as costs and QALYs, without showing that one causes the other.

Correlation CoefficientConceptPearson r, Association Coefficient

A correlation coefficient is a statistic from -1 to +1 giving the direction and strength of association between paired variables, such as costs and QALYs.

Correlation MatrixConceptCorrelation Table, Pairwise Correlation Grid

A correlation matrix is a square table containing the pairwise correlation coefficients among a set of variables.

Corridor DeductibleTermCorridor Cost-Sharing, Middle-Range Deductible

A deductible structure in which a middle range of costs requires patient cost-sharing, while costs below and above that range are more fully covered.

CostConceptResource Expenditure, Monetary Value of Resources

In health economics, cost is the value of resources used by a healthcare intervention, measured as the benefit forgone from their best alternative use.

Cost AccountingConceptCost Accountancy, Management Accounting

Cost accounting is the recording of a health care provider's costs and their assignment to departments, activities and services to produce unit costs.

Cost AdjustmentTermCost Uplift, Cost Re-Basing

The process of modifying a cost estimate to allow for inflation, currency differences, or changes in clinical practice, so costs from different periods can be compared.

Cost AllocationConceptShared Cost Allocation, Overhead Allocation, Indirect Cost Allocation, Cost Apportionment

Cost allocation is the sharing of overhead and other indirect costs among health services or patients by a stated rule, such as bed-days or staff time.

Cost AnalysisConceptCosting Study, Cost Estimation Study

Cost analysis is a partial economic evaluation that compares the costs of two or more healthcare alternatives without measuring their health outcomes.

Cost AvoidanceTermAvoided Cost, Averted Expenditure

A reduction in future spending achieved by preventing a costly event, such as hospitalisation, unlike a direct reduction of current spending.

Cost CentreTermCost Center, Cost Pool

A specific department within a healthcare organisation to which costs are allocated and tracked separately for management and accounting purposes.

Cost Centre BudgetTermCost-Centre Allocation, Responsibility Budget, Department Budget, Departmental Budget, Unit Budget

A budget allocated to a specific organisational unit responsible for incurring costs, such as a hospital department, without generating revenue.

Cost ContainmentConceptCost Curbing, Spending Growth Control, Cost Control

Cost containment is the use of policies such as budget caps, payment controls and patient charges to hold down the level or growth of health spending.

Cost ConversionTermCurrency Conversion of Costs, Cost Rebasing

The adjustment of cost data from one currency, price year, or unit basis to another so costs can be meaningfully compared.

Cost DescriptionTermCost Reporting Study, Descriptive Costing

A study that reports the costs associated with a health condition or intervention without comparing them to an alternative or to outcomes.

Cost DriverConceptCost Determinant, Spending Driver

A cost driver is a factor that causes a health service's costs to change over a period, such as patient visits, bed-days, staff time or case mix.

Cost Driver AnalysisTermDriver Analysis, Cost-Factor Analysis

A systematic examination of the factors responsible for changes in total cost, used to break an overall increase into its component causes.

Cost FindingTermCost Allocation Process, Overhead Allocation

A cost accounting process allocating indirect and overhead costs across specific departments or services, producing information for management and payer reporting.

Cost FunctionConceptCost-Output Function, Production-Cost Relationship

A cost function is the relationship between output, input prices and the lowest cost of production, used to study hospital scale, scope and efficiency.

Cost IdentificationTermCost Categorisation, Cost Inclusion Decision

The process of determining which categories of resource use should be included in an economic evaluation before quantities and unit costs are measured.

Cost LimitTermCost Ceiling, Allowable Cost Cap

A maximum amount a payer will recognise as allowable cost for a service category when calculating reimbursement, a cost-containment mechanism.

Cost Management HospitalTermHospital Cost Management, Hospital Cost Control

The set of strategies a hospital employs to control and optimise operating costs while maintaining or improving care quality.

Cost MeasurementConceptCost Quantification, Resource Costing

Cost measurement is the step in economic evaluation that counts the resources each alternative uses, such as GP visits or bed-days, before they are valued.

Cost MinimisationConceptCost Minimization, Least-Cost Selection

An approach to selecting among interventions already shown to produce equivalent outcomes, in which the choice reduces to the lowest-cost option.

Cost Outcome DescriptionTermCost-Outcome Study, Cost and Outcome Report

A study that reports both the costs and outcomes of an intervention without directly comparing them against an alternative.

Cost OutlierTermOutlier Case, High-Cost Case

A case whose actual treatment cost substantially exceeds what standard diagnosis-related group payment would expect, triggering additional supplemental payment.

Cost per QALYConceptCost/QALY, Cost per Quality-Adjusted Life Year

Cost per QALY gained is the extra cost of a treatment compared with an alternative, divided by the quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) it adds.

Cost ProjectionTermCost Forecast, Projected Spending

An estimate of future costs based on current spending patterns, anticipated changes in utilisation, or expected shifts in treatment practice.

Cost ReportTermProvider Financial Report, Medicare Cost Filing

A standardised financial document providers must periodically submit to government payers, detailing costs across various service categories.

Cost SavingsTermSavings, Realised Savings

A reduction in healthcare expenditure achieved through an intervention or policy, relative to what spending would otherwise have been.

Cost SharingConceptCost-Sharing, Patient Cost Share

Cost sharing is the part of the cost of covered care that an insured patient pays directly, through deductibles, co-payments or coinsurance, not premiums.

Cost Sharing AgreementTermCost-Sharing Agreement, Payer-Manufacturer Cost Split

An arrangement dividing a treatment's cost burden between payer and manufacturer according to a predefined formula, managing affordability within a fixed budget.

Cost Sharing DesignTermCost-Sharing Structure, Benefit Cost-Share Design

The specific combination of deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums selected for a plan, determining enrollees' overall financial exposure.

Cost ShiftingConceptCost Transfer, Cross-Payer Shifting

Cost shifting is the transfer of health care costs from one payer or sector to another, as when hospitals raise private prices after public payment cuts.

Cost StandardizationTermCost Standardisation, Comparable Costing

The process of adjusting cost estimates so they are expressed in comparable terms, such as a common currency or price year, across studies.

Cost StructureTermCost Composition, Cost Mix

The composition of an organisation's or intervention's total costs across categories, such as fixed and variable, or direct and indirect.

Cost ValuationConceptValuation of Costs, Resource Valuation, Monetary Valuation of Resource Use, Costing Valuation

Cost valuation is the assignment of monetary values to measured resource use in accordance with a specified perspective, setting, price year, and decision purpose.

Cost VarianceTermCost Deviation, Actual-vs-Budget Cost Gap

The difference between expected and actual cost for a given activity or service, often signalling inefficiency or changing input prices.

Cost-Based PricingConceptMarkup Pricing, Cost-Plus Model

Cost-based pricing sets the price of a medicine from its research and development, manufacturing, regulatory and overhead costs plus a profit margin.

Cost-Based ReimbursementConceptCost Reimbursement, Retrospective Cost Payment

Cost-based reimbursement is a provider payment method in which a payer pays a hospital or other provider the costs it incurred, settled after care.

Cost-Benefit AnalysisConceptCBA, Benefit-Cost Analysis

Cost-benefit analysis values the costs and benefits of healthcare options in money, so they can be compared by their net benefit, usually to society.

Cost-Benefit PolicyTermMonetised Policy Appraisal, CBA Policy Framework

A policy analysis approach expressing both costs and benefits of alternative options in monetary terms, enabling direct cross-sector comparison.

Cost-Consequence AnalysisConceptCCA, Disaggregated Cost-Outcome Analysis

Cost-consequence analysis sets out the costs and each separate outcome of healthcare options side by side, without combining them into one result.

Cost-Effective InterventionTermGood-Value Intervention, Efficient Intervention

An intervention whose additional cost relative to its comparator is acceptable given its additional health benefit, judged against a cost-effectiveness threshold.

Cost-EffectivenessConceptValue for Money, Efficiency of Spending

Cost-effectiveness means an intervention's health gain justifies any extra cost versus an alternative, usually judged by the ICER against a threshold.

Cost-Effectiveness AcceptabilityTermCE Acceptability, Acceptability Probability

The probability that an intervention offers good value for money at a given willingness-to-pay threshold, accounting for uncertainty in the cost and effect estimates.

Cost-Effectiveness Acceptability Curve (CEAC)ConceptCost-Effectiveness Acceptability Curve, CEAC

A cost-effectiveness acceptability curve (CEAC) plots, across cost-effectiveness thresholds, the probability that each option is the most cost-effective.