1. Medical facility that primarily provides health-related care and services above the level of custodial care to mentally retarded and developmentally disabled individuals but does not provide the level of care available in a hospital or skilled nursing facility. 2. Optional Medicaid service. Each state defines its level of ICF MR care.

Entities that contract between a managed care organization (MCO) or one of its subcontractors and a physician or physician group, other than physician groups themselves. An independent practice association (IPA) is considered to be an intermediate entity if it contracts with one or more physician groups in addition to contracting with individual physicians.

Physical restoration of damaged tissue when the wound requires layered closure of one or more of the deeper layers of subcutaneous tissue and superficial (nonmuscle) fascia, in addition to the skin (epidermal and dermal) closure. Single-layer closure of heavily contaminated wounds that have required extensive cleaning or removal of particulate matter also constitutes intermediate repair and can be coded as such.

Hospital unit where patients are kept who do not require intensive care but who are not yet ready to be kept in a regular medical-surgical unit or are not ready to be released to independent care at home. Also called step-down unit .

In a workers’ compensation case, pain approximately 50% of the time.

Periodic supine regimen that uses intermittent flow technique, automated assisted manual, or manual method in dialysis sessions two to four times weekly.

Subjective indications of a disease or illness that occur about 50% of the time.

Number assigned by Medicare carriers to each insurance claim for control and inventory purposes. This number is composed of 15 digits, which indicate the claim type, region, year, Julian date, batch number, and sequence. This number should be referenced when communicating with the insurance carrier about a specific claim problem.

Business management systems and policies for reasonably documenting, monitoring, and correcting operational processes to prevent and detect waste and to ensure proper payment.