Data Collection is the acquisition of health care information or facts based upon patient and consumer race, ethnicity and language. Data Collection provides health care providers with the ability to perform benchmarking measures on health care systems to determine areas where improvement is needed in providing care.

A data set is a logically meaningful grouping or collection of similar or related data using variables that have standard definitions.  Data sets are often in an electronically readable format.

A deductible is the amount of loss or expense that must be incurred by an insured or otherwise covered individual before an insurer will assume any liability for all or part of the remaining cost of covered services.  Deductibles may be either fixed-dollar amounts or the value of specified services, such as two days of hospital care or one physician visit.  Deductibles are usually tied to some reference period over which they must be incurred, for example, $100 per calendar year, benefit period, or episode of illness.

Doctors and hospitals often perform unnecessary tests and procedures on patients to ward off potential malpractice lawsuits.  This drives up overall health-care spending.  Meanwhile, malpractice insurance can cost doctors hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

The Department of Health and Human Services is the U.S. government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.

Disease Management is an approach designed to improve the health and quality of life for people with chronic illnesses by working to keep the conditions under control and prevent them from getting worse.

A Disease Registry is a large collection or registry belonging to a health care system that contains information on different chronic health problems affecting patients within the system. A Disease Registry helps to manage and log data on chronic illnesses and diseases. All data contained within the Disease Registry are logged by health care providers and are available to providers to perform benchmarking measures on health care systems.

Disparities in care are differences in the delivery of health care, access to health care services and medical outcomes based on ethnicity, geography, gender and other factors that do not include socioeconomic status or insurance coverage. Understanding and eliminating the causes of health care disparities is an ongoing effort of many groups and organizations.

"Double-masked" is a way of giving treatment in a clinical trial.  Neither the people doing the study nor the person getting the treatment know what therapy is being given to which patient.  That way neither the patients nor the researchers know who is getting which treatment.  The goal is to keep people from changing what they do because of which treatment they are getting (or giving).  It helps keep patients and researchers from changing the results based on what they think should happen.  "Double" refers to both parties – that is, the researchers and the patients.  Double-masked can also mean any time that information is kept from two groups of people to keep that information from affecting some measurement, observation, or process.  Double-masked studies are also called "double-blind" studies.  See also Masked Study.

A gap in prescription-drug coverage for Medicare recipients in Part D.  Because of the way the law was written, some seniors have no coverage once their drug costs exceed $2,700 a year, until they have spent $4,350 out of their own pocket.