Biomed Chapter 4 - Key Terms

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

Set of key capabilities used to evaluate need for personal care assistance for older adults or disabled persons; includes bathing, dressing, toileting, and self-feeding.

Adult Day Care Services

Program for the disabled or elderly who require health and/or support services; used to supplement home care services or as a less costly option to being institutionalized.

Aging Network

System of federal, state, and local agencies committed to having older Americans live independently in their homes and communities.

Alzheimer’s Disease

A degenerative brain disease and the most common form of dementia; early symptoms are a decline in cognitive function that affects memory, language, and problem solving. Later stages require complete care.

Area Agencies of Aging (AAAs)

One of 622 agencies nationwide with the purpose of providing resources and supports for older adults; established in 1973.

Assisted Living Facilities

Living facility primarily for seniors that provides meals, housekeeping, medication management, and other assistance with daily living activities as needed.

Caregiving

The process of providing personal care services for a senior friend or family member who is physically or mentally disabled or is experiencing dementia.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that manages Medicare and Medicaid and strives to ensure effective, up-to-date healthcare coverage and to promote quality care for beneficiaries.

Chronic Disease

A disease that is long in duration, reoccurs frequently, and progresses slowly.

Continuing Care Community

Community or campus that allows residents to move from independent living to assisted living or to a skilled nursing facility as their needs change.

Dementia

Decline in cognitive function that affects memory, language, and problem-solving skills. Causes include poor heart health, smoking, brain injury, and some diseases such as vascular dementia. Typical symptoms include getting lost in familiar neighborhoods, forgetting names of family members, or forgetting common words.

Demographic

Related to characteristics of the population: age, gender, race, and ethnicity.

Frail Elderly

Physically weak patients of advanced age.

Geriatricians

Primary care physicians who specialize in the care of those 65 years of age and older and focus on common health and social issues related to the aging process.

Health Literacy

The ability of an individual to obtain, process, and understand health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

Healthy People 2020

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services establishes health goals every decade and compares health data with those goals.

Home Health Agencies (HHAs)

Agencies that provide nursing and medical care in patients’ homes.

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)

Complex self-care activities used to evaluate the independence of disabled persons or older adults; examples include shopping, preparing meals, managing finances, and taking medications as prescribed.

Intermediate Care Facilities for People with Intellectual Disability (ICF/ID)

A facility that provides personal care and social services.

Interprofessional Education (IPE)

Model for teaching students in the health professions about the roles and responsibilities of health professionals by functioning as a collaborative team during clinical training.

Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)

System of providing health and personal care support for the disabled, elderly, or others with chronic health problems in people’s homes instead of institutions.

Managed Care Organization (MCO)

Healthcare plan with established cost controls and designed to improve quality of care.

Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment Provisions

Program that allows for protection of a couple’s financial resources so that a spouse can continue living in the community when his or her partner requires nursing home care.

Medicare Supplemental Health Insurance

Health insurance purchased by Medicare beneficiaries to cover the cost of copayments for hospital and outpatient health services.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

A division within the CDC that collects data on factors contributing to health risks.

Old-Old

Those over 85 years of age.

1973 Older Americans Act (OAA)

An addition to a program established by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to provide resources and supports for the elderly, enacted primarily to create the Area Agency on Aging.

Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA 87)

A law passed by Congress that required Medicare and Medicaid standards and certification procedures for long-term care facilities to merge; ICF/ID standards were upgraded to be the same as skilled care facilities.

Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR)

Screening for mental illness or intellectual disability required for all admissions to Medicaid-certified nursing homes.

Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE)

Program that provides comprehensive preventive, primary, acute, and long-term services so older individuals with chronic care needs can continue living in their local community.

Residential Care Communities

See assisted living facilities.

Senior Centers

Focal point for services and referrals to resources for the elderly; funded by the federal government as a result of the Older Americans Act.

Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)

A nursing home that provides the level of care closest to hospital care.

Supplemental Insurance

The things that Medicaid covers that are not included in Medicare.

U.S. Administration on Aging (AOA)

Division within the HHS agency, Administration for Community Living; provides a variety of home- and community-based services for older adults and disabled persons.