Part 441 Definitions

A clinic outpatient is one who is registered with a formally organized hospital service unit known as a clinic. The clinic constitutes an organizational entity to provide diagnosis and/or treatment under the direction of a specialty or subspecialty department of the hospital purs…

A program of care providing mltidisciplinary physician and restorative services; including skilled rehabilitation nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, activities of daily living, speech therapy, and prosthetic-orthotic services; and having a physician director whose p…

Continued uniformity, during a period or from one period to another, in methods of accounting, mainly in valuation bases and methods of accrual, as reflected in the financial statements of an accounting entity.

Services performed in whole or in part by an outside organization on a contractual basis.

The difference between billings at established charges and amounts received or due from third-party payors under contract agreements.

The general principles and procedures under which the accounts of an organization are maintained and reported; any one such principle or procedure.

The payments in cash or property made to a corporation by its stockholders in exchange for capital stock, in response to an assessment or the capital stock, or as a gift; paid-in capital.

See donated services.

The process by which the activities of an organization are conformed to a desired plan of action and the plan is conformed to the organization's activities.

An expenditure or outlay of cash, other property, capital stock, or services, or the incurring of a liability therefor, identified with goods or services acquired or with any loss incurred, and measured by the amount of cash paid or payable or the market value of other property, …

A cost center is an accounting device for accumulating items of cost that have common characteristics. A cost center may or may not be a department within the institution. A cost center such as Depreciation and Amortization, is an example where the cost center would not be a depa…

A discrete inpatient unit within the hospital providing maximum surveillance/support of vital functions; definitive therapy for patients with acute but reversible life-threatening impairments; patient monitoring; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; other life support techniques; and a…

(a) Intensive medical care. (b) Medical director who has completed residency training in one of the major clinical specialties and has acquired advanced skills and knowledge in life support and patient monitoring techniques. (c) The medical director devotes the majority of his ti…

(a) Intensive nursing care. (b) Intensive nursing care 24 hours a day. (c) Medical director who has completed residency training in one of the major clinical specialties and has acquired advanced skills and knowledge in life support and patient monitoring techniques. (d) MD round…

Unrestricted cash, or other assets held for conversion within one year into cash or other readily convertible asset, or currently useful goods or services. The five customary subdivisions of current assets are cash, temporary investments, receivables, inventory, and prepaid expen…

A short-term debt, regardless of its source, including any liability accrued and deferred and unearned revenue that is to be paid out of current assets or is to be transferred to income within one year. The currently maturing portion of long-term debt is thus classified unless it…

(a) The recognition of events and conditions as they occur, rather than in the period of their receipt, or payment. (b) The partial recognition of an item of revenue or expense and its related assets or liability resulting from the lack of coincidence of the reporting period and …

Daily hospital services are those inpatient services generally included by the hospital in a daily service charge, sometimes referred to as the “room and board” charge. Included in such services are the room, dietary and nursing services, minor medical and surgical supplies, and …

The number of inpatients present at the census-taking time each day, plus any inpatients who were both admitted and discharged after the census-taking time the previous day. Generally the inpatient census is taken each midnight. However, a facility may designate and consistently …

The effective purchase date of an asset. Usually, this is the date title is acquired, or the burdens of ownership are assumed and the asset is in possession.

The date proposed in the hospital's letter of intent to decertify filed with the Department of Health and subsequently approved. The date promulgated by the Department of Health. The date the last patient was discharged from the unit.

The date the hospital receives approval from the Department of Health to utilize a unit or portion thereof.

Under the Medicare program, that portion of covered hospital and medical charges which an insured person must pay before his policy benefits begin. Proposed as a mechanism to discourage over-utilization or to avoid processing small claims.

Reductions in gross revenue arising from bad debts, contractual adjustments, uncompensated/charity care, administrative, courtesy, policy discounts, adjustments and others.

The accounting treatment accorded the receipt or accrual of revenue before it is earned, or the incurrence of an expenditure before the benefits therefrom are received. Such items are balance-sheet liabilities or assets and are carried forward to the income account of succeeding …

An expenditure not recognized as a cost of operations of the period in which incurred but carried forward to be written off in one or more future periods.

Revenue received or recorded before it is earned, i.e., before the consideration is given, in whole or in part, for which the revenue is or is to be received.

The recognizing and reporting of the effects of transactions and other events on the assets and liabilities of the hospital entity in the time period to which they relate, rather than only when cash is received or paid.

That part of the cost of a fixed asset that is to be spread over useful life;i.e.,cost less the estimated recovery from resale or salvage.

Lost usefulness; expired utility; the diminution of service yield from a fixed asset or fixed-asset group that cannot or will not be restored by repairs or by replacement of parts.

Money or marketable securities set aside for the purpose of replacing or providing assistance in replacing depreciable fixed assets.

The cost of any good or service that contributes to, and is readily ascribable to, product or service output. Direct expense includes salaries and wages, employee benefits, professional fees, supplies, purchased services, other direct expenses and transfers.

The process of identifying and assigning costs directly to the functional cost center generating those costs.

The termination of lodging and the formal release of an inpatient by the institution. Since deaths are a termination of lodging, they are also inpatient discharges.

A reduction in the purchase price of a good or service because of early payment.

A separately organized, staffed and equipped unit of the institution.

(a) Any payment to stockholders or owners of cash, property or shares, including any of the various forms of dividends in noncorporate enterprise; a withdrawal. (b) A spread of revenue or expenditure or of capital additions to various accounts; an allocation. (c) Disposal of a pr…

Gifts of supplies and other materials, such as medicines, blood, linen and office supplies, which are normally purchased by the institution, and are recorded on the books at their fair market value at the time of donation, regardless of when actual receipt takes place.