This page includes abbreviations, acronyms, and definitions of terms used throughout the Toolkit.

Agency: The entity that issued the RFP and will enter into the contract. It may or may not be the facility where care will be provided. 

Bidder: An entity that is proposing to contract for the services described in the RFP. 

Facility: [Name of your correctional facility or organization]. It may have multiple buildings or sites. 

Health care/healthcare*: All physical and mental health care, including, but not limited to, emergent; urgent; nonurgent episodic; chronic; palliative; scheduled; inpatient; residential; outpatient; referrals to other on-site professionals; off-site specialty referrals; modifications of specialty referral requests; and action taken on posthospital, post-emergency room, or specialist recommendations. *Note: in this Toolkit we distinguish between “health care” as a noun and “healthcare” as an adjective. 

HR: Health record. For the purposes of this Toolkit, this term includes clinical still, sound, and video recordings. 

Health services request: Written or electronic nonurgent request for care submitted by a patient. 

Jurisdiction: The [state, county, city, regional jurisdiction, territory, or tribe (select the applicable term)] government that has controlling authority over your facility. 

MRS 1115: Medicaid Reentry Section 1115 Demonstration Opportunity to Increase Health Care for People Leaving Carceral Facilities/Medicaid Reentry Section 1115 Demonstration Waivers 

P&P: Policies and procedures (unless otherwise indicated by the context, P&Ps generally include the forms that are referenced in the P&P) 

Patient: An incarcerated individual, including pretrial detainees, when the context is the individual in relationship to the provision of health care. 

Practitioner: A physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant. If not preceded by the word “Psychiatric,” this is medical practitioner. 

Proposal, response to the RFP, submission: The sole written document that bidders submit to the agency in response to the RFP. 

Resident, incarcerated individual: A person in custody of your facility, including a pretrial detainee, when the context is the individual generally and not related to the provision of health care. 

RFP: Request for proposal (document issued by a jurisdiction describing the contracted services it is seeking to procure and soliciting proposals from interested vendors; some jurisdictions use terms such as request for information, request for quote) 

Utilization management: The evaluation of the appropriateness and medical necessity of health services, procedures, and facilities according to evidence-based criteria. 

Vendor: The contracted provider of health care to the facility. Occasionally, a contractor may be another government agency or a nonprofit entity; this will be obvious from the context.