Adjustment of postretirement benefits to compensate for the effects of inflation such as increasing pension benefits to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to make up for a change in the cost of living.
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UK: A method whereby benefits or sums insured are increased periodically by a factor derived from an index of prices or earnings. Household building sums insured are linked to a rebuilding cost index and contents cover increases annually in line with an index reflecting replacement costs. Regulations oblige exempt approved schemes to increase pension payments for post April 1997 service by at the least the appropriate percentage taken from the retail price index up to 5 per cent per annum but this cap reduces to 2.5 per cent in 2005 under what is called limited price index (LPI). LPI does not apply to AVCs and FSAVCs. See ESCALATION; STABILITY INDEX CLAUSE.

Whole life plan of insurance that provides for a premium rate increase automatically every year to correspond with any increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to make up for a change in the cost of living.

1. Key clinical value or quality characteristic used to measure, over time, the performance, processes, and outcomes of an organization or some component of health care delivery. 2. Correct coding initiative (CCI) indicators designate which procedure codes can be pulled out of a bundle and which cannot.

Individual who is not able to pay for medical services or treatments and is not eligible for benefits under the Medicaid or other public assistance program.

1. Medical practice business overhead costs that are not associated with the physician’s medical service directly provided to the patient (e.g., rent, office supplies, utilities). 2. In managed care programs, cost that cannot be associated directly with a certain activity, service, or product. Indirect costs are usually distributed among the plan’s services in proportion to each service’s share of direct costs.

Change or modification applied to payments under the prospective payment system (PPS) for hospitals that operate approved graduate medical education programs. For operating costs, the adjustment is based on the hospital’s ratio of interns and residents to the number of beds. For capital costs, the adjustment is based on the hospital’s ratio of interns and residents to average daily occupancy.

Association or connection between an individual and a health care provider in which the provider delivers care to the patient based on orders from another physician and the provider either gives services and supplies, reports diagnoses, or provides results directly to another provider who interacts with the patient. For example, a radiologist or a pathologist would be considered to have indirect treatment relationships with patients because they provide diagnostic services requested by other providers and furnish results to the patient through the direct treating physician.