Also known as EMT-1 , represents the first component of the emergency medical technician system. An EMT-1 is trained to care for patients at the scene of an accident and while transporting patients by ambulance to the hospital under medical direction. The EMT-1 has the emergency skills to assess a patient’s condition and manage respiratory, cardiac, and trauma emergencies. Also see emergency medical technician (EMT) .

Also known as EMT-2 and EMT-3 and has more advanced emergency medical training that allows the administration of intravenous fluids, the use of manual defibrillators to give life-saving shocks to a stopped heart, and the application of advanced airway techniques and equipment to assist patients experiencing respiratory emergencies. Also see emergency medical technician (EMT) .

Also known as EMT-4 and provides the most extensive prehospital care in an emergency situation. Also see emergency medical technician (EMT) .

Ancillary services that help patients to access medical care (e.g., shuttle transportation or translator services).

Add-on software to practice management systems that can reduce the time it takes to build or review insurance claims before batch transmission to the carrier. It takes codes entered by a coder, and by using a series of built-in prompts it enables him or her to code more accurately and specifically. The encoder bases its code selection on clinical documentation and can generate diagnostic and/or procedural codes. The prompts perform such tasks as resequencing codes by priority, verifying the relationship between grouped codes, and suggesting additional related codes not originally entered by the coder. Two types of encoder systems exist: logic based and dictionary driven.

Method used in encoder software in which a coder enters a keyword that brings up a menu of either diagnostic or procedural codes from which a coder can choose.

Method used in encoder software in which a coder enters a keyword that generates a series of prompts or questions that ends with a suggested diagnostic or procedural code.

1. Face-to-face meeting and communication of a provider and a patient for the diagnosis and treatment of a disease or injury. This may occur in an office, home, or hospital facility setting. 2. One contact or episode of service to a patient. Also known as a visit .

Detailed information about individual medical services, regarding how a patient was treated, that are provided to a capitated managed care plan by the provider. The level of detail about each medical service reported is similar to that of a standard insurance claim form. Encounter data are also sometimes referred to as shadow claims .

Dollar amount that is charged to a managed care plan member by a provider when medical service is provided in a preferred provider hospital emergency department or in the office of the preferred provider. A schedule of benefits or fee schedule in the managed care contract lists the amount of the fee for each type of medical service along with the procedural code.