Standardized data set created under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and developed to unify and standardize federal assessment to improve continuity of care when patients transfer between providers and facilities. It is accessed through an Internet-based health and functional assessment instrument. This federal demonstration project will collect data until 2011.

Continued treatment of a patient who is referred by one physician to another for the same condition.

Subset of a patient’s health record that provides a basic set of information from one incident of care to another episode of care.

Health care contract in which benefits may be transferred from one plan to another without a lapse of coverage.

Type of kidney dialysis where the patient’s peritoneal membrane is used as the dialyzer. The patient dialyzes at home, using special supplies, but without the need for a machine.

Nursing care 24 hours a day during a period of crisis when the patient needs uninterrupted care to manage acute medical symptoms or needs emotional support as in a hospice case.

Insurance benefits that transfer from one health plan to another with no break in coverage or from one type of membership to another (e.g., from dependent to subscriber with a new subscriber identification number). Also called continuity of coverage.

Type of kidney dialysis where the patient generally dialyzes at home and uses an automated peritoneal cycler for delivering dialysis exchanges.

In hospice cases, this is a day on which the patient is not in an inpatient facility and elects to receive nursing care on an uninterrupted basis at home. This type of care is furnished during brief periods of crisis and only as needed to maintain a terminally ill patient at home.