Category: P

A sensory nerve ending in the skin which is sensitive to touch and vibrations. Small, bulblike sensory organs attached to the end of nerve fibers in subcutaneous and submucous areas, especially in the palms, soles, joints, and genitals. Sensory receptors for touch in the skin, consisting of sensory nerve endings surrounded by capsules of membrane…

A surgical operation to implant or attach a cardiac pacemaker. Setting the rate or tempo of an event, especially the heartbeat.  

A condition in which the skin becomes thicker than normal.  

One of the principal Acts of Congress providing legislative authority for Federal health activities. Originally enacted July 1, 1944 (and sometimes referred to as the Act of July 1), the PHS Act was, when enacted, a complete codification of all the accumulated Federal public health laws. Since that time many of the Acts written in…

The science dealing with the protection and improvement of community health, by organized community effort. Public health activities are generally those which are less amenable to being undertaken or less effective when undertaken on an individual basis, and do not typically include direct personal health services. Immunizations, sanitation, preventive medicine, quarantine and other disease control…

Disease that shows a physical dysfunction or lesion in which psychological and other non-physical factors play a causative role, e.g. asthma, vasomotor rhinitis, peptic ulcer, colonic disorders, arterial hypertension, chronic urticaria, coronary’ disease and hyperthyroidism. These should be distinguished from mental disorders and from the psychic effects of diseases which are not psychically caused. A…

The principle that Medicare should not reimburse a provider for a cost that is not a reasonable cost because it is in excess of the amount that a prudent and cost-conscious buyer would be expected to pay. For example, an organization that does not seek the customary discount on bulk purchases could, through the operation…

Any method of paying hospitals or other health programs in which amounts or rate., of payment are established in advance for the coming year and the programs are paid these amounts regardless of the costs they actually incur. These systems of reimbursement are designed to introduce a degree of constraint on charge or cost increases…

Profit making; owned and operated for the purposes of making a profit, whether or not made. Belonging to a commercial company. For-profit and privately owned and managed.  

A tax which takes a constant proportion of income as income changes. The social security payroll tax is proportional up to the $14,100 limit on income to which it applies.