Managed care organizations provide health plans that define a maximum fee for which health providers may charge a given service.  In return, the health plan lists the providers in a referral directory of "approved physicians" that is given to all the health plan members.  Health maintenance organizations (HMO) and preferred provider organizations (PPO) are both a type of MCO.

Mandatory reporting consists of state or federal regulations that require certain events to be reported to a governmental entity for inclusion in, for example, a registry.  Such events could be a new cancer occurrence, or an adverse event during a clinical trial.

A masked study is one where the people in it don't know what group they are in.  For example, let's say the study is testing a new drug.  Some people will get an already approved drug, and others will get a new drug.  But none of them will know which drug they are getting until the study is over.  Masked studies are done so that people will record what they really feel and see, not just what they think they feel and see.  Sometimes these studies are referred to as "blind studies" instead.
A "double-masked" study is when the person doing the study doesn't know who is getting the drug either.  Masked and double-masked studies are a very important way to test whether a therapy works.  Advances in our ability to treat breast cancer depend on people agreeing to take part in studies.  See also Double-Masked Study.

Medicaid is a health insurance program for lower-income families and the disabled.  It is paid for partly by the federal government and partly by the state in which an individual resides.  The criteria for Medicaid eligibility vary by state.

 A medical error is when the right care is not carried out as planned or when the wrong care is used.  Errors can happen in all stages of the care process, from diagnosis, to treatment, to preventive care.

A medical practice is a business that provides health care.

Medicare is a national health insurance program for people age 65 or older that is paid for by the federal government.  Medicare has four parts.  Part A helps cover the basic costs of medical care, surgery, and mental hospital care.  Part B is extra insurance, and while the government pays for part of it people in the program pay insurance premiums, too.  Part C is a choice to get Parts A and B through a private insurance plan.  Part D helps cover prescription drug costs.  Medicare is considered an entitlement program, since anyone age 65 or older is eligible, and currently covers over 40 million people in the United States.

A medical records review is a research method involving the selection of a sample of medical records for content review of specific indicators such as the use of services, characteristics of disease, or the patterns and quality of care.

The process or technique of synthesizing previous research from different studies by using statistical methods to pool and weight the results.  Meta-analysis involves a specific process for identifying studies to include, and rigorous inclusion criteria.  Meta-analysis allows the data from numerous smaller studies to be combined and analyzed as if it had been one larger study, making the analysis more accurate.  Meta-analysis methods do not, however, reduce any bias from the smaller studies.  If the smaller studies are poorly designed, the meta-analysis will not make the results more accurate.  A meta-analysis is often the basis for a systematic review.

Misuse occurs when an appropriate process of care has been selected, but a preventable complication occurs and the patient does not receive the full potential benefit of the service. Avoidable complications of surgery or medication use are misuse problems. A patient who suffers a rash after receiving penicillin for strep throat, despite having a known allergy to that antibiotic, is an example of misuse. A patient who develops a pneumothorax after an inexperienced operator attempted to insert a subclavian line would represent another example of misuse.

A Model of Care is a conceptual object or diagram that provides an outline of how to plan all current and future facility and clinical service. It is important that the Model of Care be designed and evaluated for its ability to be replicated within the health care system. Models of care can help guide and direct a patient's experience within a health care system.

Multi-disciplinary Teams are health care teams made up of health care professionals as well as health educators or community leaders.