| AAPC |
American Association of Professional Coders |
| AHA |
American Hospital Association |
| AHIMA |
American Health Information Management Association |
| AMA |
American Medical Association |
| APC |
Ambulatory Payment Classification: prospective payment system for outpatient surgical procedures. |
| CCA |
Certified Coding Associate: demonstrates coding competency at a high level of expertise across all settings, including both hospitals and physician practices. |
| CCS |
Certified Coding Specialist: CCSs are skilled in classifying medical data from patient records, generally in a hospital setting. They assign codes for diagnoses and procedures for hospital reimbursement and research. |
| CCS-P |
Certified Coding Specialist-Physician based: - coding practitioners specialized in physician-based settings such as physician offices, group practices, multi-specialty clinics, or specialty centers. |
| CDC |
Center for Disease Control |
| CDM |
Charge Descriptor Master |
| CE |
Continuing Education |
| CHDA |
Certified Health Data Analyst: is an expert in health data analysis. They acquire, manage, analyze, interpret and transform data into accurate, consistent and timely information to be communicated to both, internal and external clients. |
| CHF |
Congestive Heart Failure |
| CHIA |
California Health Information Association |
| CHPS |
Certified in Healthcare Privacy and Security: denotes competence in designing, implementing and administering comprehensive privacy and security protection programs for all types of healthcare organizations. |
| CICU |
Cardiac Intensive Care Unit |
| CID |
Center for Infectious Diseases |
| CIRCC |
Certified Interventional Radiology Cardiovascular Coder: this specialty works in the complex and specialized areas of interventional and cardiovascular coding and charging. |
| CMA |
Certified Medical Assistant |
| CMS |
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. US federal agency which administers Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. |
| CPC |
Certified Professional Coder: - demonstrates superior knowledge and expertise in various medical coding environments and application of the correct application of CPT, HCPCS Level II procedure and supply codes in addition to diagnoses codes. |
| CPC-H |
Certified Professional Coder-Hospital: designates proficiency in assigning medical codes for diagnoses, procedures and services in the hospital/outpatient setting. |
| CPC-P |
Certified Professional Coder-Payer: this certification ensures that the practitioner has the knowledge and skills to assign diagnosis and procedure codes accurately and adjudicate provider claims effectively. |
| CPMA |
Certified Professional Medical Auditor: practitioner in this area uses knowledge of coding, compliance and regulatory guidelines to improve physician practice’s revenue cycle. |
| CPT-4 |
Current Procedural Terminology |
| CRTT |
Certified Respiratory Therapy Technician |
| DRG |
Diagnosis Related Group: facilitates analytical use of hospital’s medical record data and is used to determine hospital reimbursement. It is also used by Medicare program to prospectively to allow the government or insurer to fix prices in advance. |
| EHR |
Electronic Health Record |
| EPS |
Electrophysiology Study |
| HCPCS |
Health Care Financial Administration common procedural coding system |
| HIM |
Health Information Management |
| HIPAA |
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act |
| HIS |
Hospital Information System |
| HIV |
Human Immunodeficiency Virus |
| HMO |
Health Maintenance Organization |
| ICD-10-CM |
International Classification of Diseases10th Revision Clinical Modification |
| ICD-9-CM |
International Classification of Diseases 9th Revision Clinical Modification |
| ICU |
Intensive Care Unit |
| JCAHO |
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations |
| LVN |
Licensed Vocational Nurse |
| MA |
Medical Assistant |
| OSHA |
Occupational Safety and Health Administration |
| OTR |
Occupational Therapist, Registered |
| OTRL |
Occupational Therapist, Registered Licensed |
| PPS |
Prospective Payment System |
| QA |
Quality Assurance |
| RAC |
Recovery Audit Contractor |
| RBRVS |
Resource-Based Relative Value Scale |
| RHIA |
Registered Health Information Administrator: is an expert in managing patient health information and medical records, administering computer information systems, collecting and analyzing patient data and using classification systems and medical terminologies. |
| RHIT |
Registered Health Information Technician: ensures the quality of medical records by verifying their completeness, accuracy and proper entry into computer systems. Specialized in coding diagnosis and procedures in patient records for reimbursement and research. |
| RN |
Registered Nurse |
| RVU |
Relative Value Unit |
| SHRM |
Society of Human Resources Managers |
| SNF |
Skilled Nursing Facility |
| UHDDS |
Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set |
| UR |
Utilization Review |
| WHO |
World Health Organization |
