Category: H

  • Habitual

    Done frequently or as a matter of habit.  

  • Habit-forming drug

    A drug which is addictive.  

  • Habit-forming

    Making someone addicted.  

  • Housestaff

    Generally, the physician staff in training at a hospital, principally comprised of the hospital’s interns, residents and fellows. Members of the housestaff are called houseofficers. Occasionally also applies to physicians salaried by a hospital who are not receiving any graduate medical education.  

  • Housecall

    A visit by a physician or other provider to a patient’s home. Now considered by some to be an obsolete practice with respect to physicians.  

  • Hospital insurance program

    The compulsory portion of Medicare which automatically enrolls all persons aged 65 and over, entitled to benefits under OASDHI or railroad retirement, persons under 65 who have been eligible for disability for over two years, and insured workers (and their dependents) requiring renal dialysis or kidney transplantation. The program pays, after various cost-sharing requirements are…

  • Hospital-based physician

    A physician who spends the predominant part of his practice time within one or more hospitals instead of in an office setting, or providing services to one or more hospitals or their patients. Such physicians sometimes have a special financial arrangement with the hospital (salary or percentage of fees collected), and include directors of medical…

  • Hometown medical and dental care

    In the Veterans Administration health care program, outpatient medical or dental treatment paid for by the program and provided eligible veterans in their own communities by VA approved doctors or dentists of their own choice. Such treatment is furnished when the care cannot be given by VA clinic facilities, or when the health of the…

  • Homeopathic pharmacopeia of the U.S

    One of the three official compendia in the United States recognized in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.  

  • Homemaker services

    Non-medical support services (e.g., food preparation, bathing) given a homebound individual who is unable to perform these tasks himself. Such services are not covered under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, or most other health insurance programs, but may be included in the social service programs developed by the States under title XX of the Social…