Glossary

p
Palliative care/palliation

Treatment that is intended to relieve symptoms, but not cure disease.

Participating payments

Payments received by participating insurance to a participating physician.

Participating Provider

A participating provider accepts assignment of the value for services.

Physician Charges

Charges rendered by a physician for patient care & treatment.

Physician Provider Number

Every physician must have a provider identification number that specifies they are a Medicarei approved provider physician practicing at a specified office location. All Medicare claims must have this provider number for place of service. This number must appear n Box 33 of the HCFAi 1500 claim form.

Port

Entry beam of the treatment beam of the patients body. Multiple beams are combined to form the radiation pattern in the treatment area.

Port Film

X-ray film taken to verify patient position and treatment field.

Portal Image

A technique where an image is produced by the treatment machine at the time the treatment is being delivered. These are real time images and are equivalent to the static port film images.

PPO

Preferred Provideri Organization. A group of health care providers working together as a network of providers to provider discounts for services.

Primary Care

Medical practice based on direct contact with the patient without referral from another physician.

Primary Payer

The carrier responsible for providing benefits before any other insurer makes payment.

Procedure Code

A series of numeric or alphanumeric characters and corresponding descriptions for each medical service.

Professional Component

The portion of a charge for services performed in a hospital that is allocated to the professional services of a physician, as distinct from a technical facility component.

Proton

A particle that is identical with the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, that along with neutrons is a constituent of all other atomic nuclei, that carries a positive charge numerically equal to the charge of an electron, and that has a mass of 1.673x10-24 gram

Proton Beam Therapy

Proton Beam Therapyi is a form of external beam radiation therapy which uses protons rather than photons (X-rays).

Provider

Person or facility providing services or supplies related to medical care.

PTV

Planning Target Volumei. This generally is the highest delivered dose area, both on a daily basis as well in total dose. The planned target volume surrounds the gross tumor volume with a physician established margin. The high dose region of the gross tumor volume shapes the target geometry of the planning target volume in three dimensions with rapid fall off of dose outside this target volume.