Concentration Curve
A graphical tool plotting the cumulative share of a health variable against the cumulative population share ranked poorest to richest.
Encyclopaedia
Explore comprehensive, evidence-informed explanations of key health economics concepts, including their development, application and relationships to other concepts. Published entries are validated through human expert review.
Concentration Index
A summary measure of socioeconomic health inequality derived from the concentration curve, ranging from negative one to positive one.
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.
Conversion Factor
A monetary amount translating a service's relative value units into an actual payment, the key multiplier connecting physician work to reimbursement.
Decision Algorithm
A structured framework guiding how an assessment body should weigh and combine evidence and criteria to reach a final recommendation.
Demographic Adjustment
A risk adjustment method predicting expected costs based on basic characteristics, such as age and sex, without detailed clinical diagnosis information.
Diagnosis-Based Risk Score
A numerical estimate of expected future healthcare costs, calculated using documented medical diagnoses alongside demographic characteristics.
Early Health Technology Assessment
The assessment of a health technology during development to inform design, evidence generation, pricing and market-access strategy.
Economic Policy
A set of governmental choices affecting resource allocation, incentives, financing and economic activity.
Experience Rating
A method setting premiums based on the actual historical claims experience of a specific individual or group, rather than a community average.
Failure to Rescue
A measure of the rate at which patients with a serious post-surgical complication subsequently die, indicating a hospital's ability to respond effectively.
Falls Rate
A measure of how frequently hospitalised patients experience a fall within a facility, a key patient safety and prevention indicator.
Grievance Rate
A measure of how frequently patients or families file a formal grievance regarding their care, distinguished from a less formal complaint.
Harm Rate
A measure of how frequently patients experience actual harm from healthcare received, typically identified through methods more comprehensive than voluntary reporting.
Health Insurance
Health insurance is a financing arrangement that pools prepaid contributions and covers specified healthcare costs when insured members need care, thereby sharing financial risk across the insured population.
Health Technology Assessment
A multidisciplinary assessment of a health technology’s clinical, economic, organisational, social and ethical implications undertaken to support policy and practice decisions.
Healthy Life Expectancy
A population health measure expressing the average years an individual is expected to live in good health, adjusting for time in disability.
Hierarchical Condition Category
A US Medicare Advantage risk classification system grouping diagnosis codes into hierarchical, clinically related categories to predict future healthcare costs.
Impoverishing Health Expenditure
Out-of-pocket healthcare spending that pushes household income or consumption below an established poverty line, or further below it.
Life Expectancy
The average number of years an individual of a given age is expected to live, based on current age-specific mortality rates.