Impact Insights uses a lot of U.S. system language (because funders, regulators, contracts, and cross-agency pathways do). This page defines the acronyms and shorthand you’ll see across the Knowledge Hub in plain English. Definitions reflect common U.S. usage, but terms can vary by state, payer, and program. When in doubt, use the definition that matches your local contract, waiver, or interagency agreement.
Quick links: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V
A
- AA / AAR
- After-Action / After-Action Review. A structured review after an incident (e.g., weather event, outage, surge) to capture what happened, what worked, what failed, and what must change.
- ACLS
- Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support. Higher-level emergency response training for clinical staff in medical emergencies (more common in clinical/high-acuity home care or mobile response teams).
- ADA
- Americans with Disabilities Act. Federal civil rights law prohibiting disability discrimination and requiring reasonable accommodations and accessible services.
- AI
- Artificial Intelligence. In this Hub, usually refers to automation, decision-support, analytics, or workflow tools—not replacement of clinical judgement or human safeguarding.
B
- BH
- Behavioral Health. Often used to include mental health and substance use services, plus related supports (peer, case management, crisis, recovery).
- BCP
- Business Continuity Plan. The operational plan for keeping critical functions running during disruption (staffing shortages, IT outage, weather event).
C
- CAP / CAPA
- Corrective Action Plan / Corrective and Preventive Action. A documented plan to fix a compliance/quality failure, prevent recurrence, assign owners, and evidence completion.
- CBT
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. A common evidence-based therapy model. In system terms, may appear when specifying service arrays, credentialing, or fidelity expectations.
- CCBHC
- Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic. A federal/state model with defined service requirements, access standards, and reporting expectations.
- CFR
- Code of Federal Regulations. Federal rules published by U.S. agencies; cited in compliance contexts (e.g., privacy, Medicaid, program requirements).
- CMS
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Federal agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid, including many rules affecting HCBS, waivers, and quality reporting.
- COOP
- Continuity of Operations Plan. A structured plan to sustain essential services under disruption, including decision authority, communications, staffing contingencies, and recovery steps.
- CPS
- Child Protective Services. The part of child welfare responsible for responding to reports of abuse/neglect and assessing safety.
- CSA / CANS
- Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) / similar structured assessments used to guide care planning, level of care decisions, and outcomes tracking in youth systems.
D
- DSP
- Direct Support Professional. Frontline staff supporting people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) in daily living, community participation, and safety.
- DOH / DPH
- Department of Health / Department of Public Health. State or local public agencies; roles vary widely by jurisdiction.
E
- ED
- Emergency Department. Often used in “avoidable ED use,” crisis diversion, discharge planning, and escalation pathways.
- EHR
- Electronic Health Record. The clinical record system used for documentation, care planning, prescribing, and clinical communication (may interface with social care records).
- EI
- Early Intervention. Supports delivered early in a condition/pathway (developmental, behavioral health, functional decline) to reduce escalation and long-term harm.
F
- FERPA
- Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Federal privacy law for education records. Often relevant at school–community–behavioral health interfaces and consent workflows.
- FQHC
- Federally Qualified Health Center. Safety-net primary care providers that often sit at the interface of health, behavioral health, and community supports.
G
- GM / GR
- Grant Management / Grant Reporting. Day-to-day requirements for documentation, eligibility, outputs, outcomes, and financial accountability tied to a grant award.
H
- HCBS
- Home- and Community-Based Services. Medicaid-funded (and other) services intended to support people in community settings instead of institutional care.
- HIPAA
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Federal privacy/security rules for protected health information, including when and how information can be shared.
- HIE
- Health Information Exchange. Technology and governance for sharing health information across organizations (often relevant to closed-loop referrals and transitions).
I
- IDD
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Service systems supporting people with lifelong developmental disabilities, including supports for independence, safety, and rights.
- IG
- Information Governance. The rules, roles, and controls for how information is collected, stored, shared, audited, and protected.
- IRF
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility. A post-acute care setting; commonly referenced in transitions and discharge planning.
J
- JI / JJ
- Justice-Involved / Juvenile Justice. Used when describing pathways that intersect with courts, probation, detention, diversion, or reentry supports.
L
- LOC
- Level of Care. A structured decision about intensity/type of service required, often tied to authorization, eligibility, or placement decisions.
- LTSS
- Long-Term Services and Supports. Broad category spanning services that help people live safely with long-term needs (aging, disability, chronic conditions), often including HCBS.
M
- MAT
- Medication for Addiction Treatment (also commonly called Medication-Assisted Treatment). Medications (e.g., buprenorphine, methadone, naltrexone) plus psychosocial supports for opioid/alcohol use disorders.
- MCO
- Managed Care Organization. A payer/plan that manages benefits, networks, prior authorization, and payment (often Medicaid managed care).
- MDT
- Multidisciplinary Team. A structured forum for shared planning/decision-making across roles (clinical, care management, safeguarding, education, housing, etc.).
N
- NEMT
- Non-Emergency Medical Transportation. Transportation benefit (often Medicaid) used to reduce missed appointments and support access.
- NPI
- National Provider Identifier. A standard identifier for healthcare providers used in billing and administrative transactions.
O
- OM / O&M
- Operating Model / Operations & Maintenance. In this Hub, usually refers to the day-to-day mechanics that make a service reliable and auditable.
P
- PCP
- Primary Care Provider (or Physician). In care coordination, may also be shorthand for the “medical home” role responsible for continuity and referrals.
- PHI
- Protected Health Information. Individually identifiable health information protected under HIPAA.
- PI / QI
- Performance Improvement / Quality Improvement. Structured methods (measures, audits, learning loops) to improve reliability and outcomes.
- PSH
- Permanent Supportive Housing. Long-term housing with supportive services for people with high needs, often linked to homelessness systems and Medicaid supports.
Q
- QA
- Quality Assurance. Controls and checks (audits, supervision, sampling, dashboards) that demonstrate services meet defined standards.
R
- RFP / RFQ
- Request for Proposals / Request for Qualifications. Procurement documents used by public agencies/plans to commission services.
- ROI
- Return on Investment. Used in value and system sustainability contexts to describe what improved outcomes/cost avoidance a program produces relative to spend.
- ROSC
- Recovery-Oriented System of Care. A coordinated network of services and supports designed to sustain recovery (often in substance use systems).
S
- SDM
- Supported Decision-Making. A rights-based approach where a person uses chosen supports to make decisions, rather than transferring authority via guardianship.
- SMI
- Serious Mental Illness. A term often used in adult behavioral health and complex needs service design, usually indicating high functional impact and need for sustained supports.
- SNF
- Skilled Nursing Facility. A post-acute and long-term care setting; commonly referenced in discharge, transitions, and step-down planning.
- SUD
- Substance Use Disorder. Clinical diagnosis category; used in system planning, service arrays, harm reduction, and treatment pathways.
T
- TA
- Technical Assistance. Support to implement a model, meet compliance requirements, improve reporting, or strengthen operational capability.
- TCO
- Total Cost of Ownership. Used in operations/technology contexts to account for ongoing costs (licenses, training, support, upgrades), not just purchase price.
U
- UM
- Utilization Management. Authorization and review processes used by payers/plans to confirm medical necessity, service levels, and continued stay/ongoing need.
V
- VBP
- Value-Based Payment. Payment models that tie reimbursement to outcomes, quality, or total cost performance (rather than only volume or unit rates).
Common shorthand you’ll also see
- 988 / 911
- 988 is the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number; 911 is the emergency number. “988/911 interfaces” describes how crisis calls are routed, triaged, and responded to safely.
- Closed-loop referral
- A referral workflow where the sender can confirm the referral was received, accepted, scheduled, completed (or declined with reason), with clear next steps documented.
- Least restrictive practice
- A rights and safety principle: use the minimum restriction necessary to manage risk, document rationale, and regularly review to reduce restrictions over time.