Concept Dictionary

The following is a brief explanation of the variables that are found in the PHRU data sets. For more information on these and other variables, send an email with your query to PHRU@dal.ca

• MUV: Master Unit Value - dollar value of a unit to a physician Unit: The value of a procedure is defined in terms of units Payment Rate: Payment Rate on Master Unit Value - ie. Global Cap

  APPROVED = MUV x Units
  (This is always true -- approved is a very reliable variable)
  
  PAID = MUV x Units x Payment Rate x Individual Cap (if applicable)
  (Usually. There are a number of conditions where this is not true)

  In general, if PAID < [APPROVED x Payment Rate], the difference is due to the individual physician cap

  • Exceptions to the Global Physician Cap
    
    

Health Regions are to be replaced by District Health Authorities 1 October 2000

Nova Scotia Health Regions (with Region & County Codes)
Western (1)	Central (3)	Northern (2)	Eastern (4)
Shelburne (16)	West Hants* (9)	East Hants* (9)	Guysborough (7)
Yarmouth (18)	Halifax (8)	Colchester (4)	Antigonish (2)
Digby (6)		Cumberland (5)	Inverness (10)
Queens (14)		Pictou (13)	Richmond (15)
Annapolis (1)			Cape Breton (3)
Lunenburg (12)			Victoria (17)
Kings (11)
* Hants is divided by municipality between the Central and Northern Regions.  When assigning Health Region by County, assign Hants to the Central Region.
Click to view larger map...

• MCHPE Concept Dictionary

PHRU would like to acknowledge and thank the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy & Evaluation for the idea of a Concept Dictionary. Click to explore the MCHPE Concept Dictionary.

• Newborns
  Newborns can be identified in ASD data be selecting SEX=3,4 (3=Newborn Male 4=Newborn Female 5=Stillborn?)
  In CIHI 1995, newborns are identified with BIRTHS='NB'
  In CIHI 1996, newborns are identified with ENTRYCOD='N'

• Nova Scotia Residents

To select Nova Scotia residents in ASD data, exclude missing MSI numbers. In CIHI data, select '11' le RESIDENC le '77'.

• Opt In/Opt Out Dates

For the purposes of determining a physician enrollment in the NS Medicare plan, select physicans where OPTIN le End of FY and OPTOUT ge Beginning of FY or Missing (Physician has not opted out of program to date).

• Payment Q & A:
  During our recent trip to Victoria, a number of questions arose about data collection in NS that I was not able to answer... these questions were forwarded to Twyla Taylor at ABCC. The following is a list of her responses, which I thought would be useful to share with everyone.
  
  Q: What percent of salaried physicians are not shadow billing?
  A: There are only a few salaried physicians who are not required to shadow bill that I can think of. One example would be institutional psychiatry.
  
  Q: Do nurse practitioners (ie. primary care projects) shadow bill?
  A: Nurse practitioners are required to shadow bill.
  
  Q: Are all emergency doctors salaried, or are some FFS?
  A: There is a mixture of payment methods. Most emergency depts are either block funded or the physicians are paid an hourly rate during selected times of the day and are paid FFS for regular hours during the week day.
  
  Q: Does NS receive claims for patients that visit doctors out-of-province (recipricol billings)? If a patient goes to see a doctor in Ontario, does that show up in our administrative data?
  A: NS does receive reciprocal claims form the other provinces. The claims are in the production environment only. They are not loaded to the data warehouse.
  
  Q: What optometry procedures are covered, and are 100% of such procedures covered in the MSI data, or are some of these covered outside of MSI?
  A: There is an optometry manual/ fee schedule. The health service codes include exam, continuing care, punctal occlusion. Certain services are covered for selected age groups. Perhaps you should order a manual if you are planning to do any work with optometric services.
  
  

• Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF) Documentation

  Adobe Acrobat Files

Postal Code Conversion File Documentation (Version 4H)

• Pharmacare Co-Pay



Period	Co-Pay	Maximum
1 June 1990 - 30 June 1991	$3 per Rx	$150
1 July 1991 - 31 December 1992	20% per Rx ($3 minimum)	$150
1 January 1993 - 31 March 1995	20% per Rx ($3 minimum)	$150 GIS $400 Non-GIS
1 April 1995 - 31 March 1996 *	20% per Rx ($3 minimum)	$200
1 April 1996 - 10 April 2000	20% per Rx ($3 minimum)	$200
11 April 2000 - Present	33% per Rx ($3 minimum)	$350 **
* Year ends 31 March 1996, not 31 December 1995. Next Annual is based on fiscal year beginning 1 April 1996. ** If a senior reached the $200 maximum between 1 April - 11 April 2000, they will be subject to the new $350 maximum. Any co-pay will be applied towards the new maximum.

• Pharmacare Costs:
  
  CLAIMED = Unaudited cost claim from pharmacy
  APPROVED* = DRUGCOST + DISPFEE
  PAID = APPROVED - COPAY

  * The definition of APPROVED changes beginning in 1996/97. The PAID field which was new in 1996/97 replaces what was known as APPROVED in previous years. The new APPROVED field represents amounts before adjustments are applied.

• Physician Cap: See Global Physician Cap

• Physician Specialty:: See General Practitioners

• Price Index: Health Services Price Index, 1985-99

• Report Disclaimer

Please include the disclaimer in the publications.

The data used in this report were made available by the Population Health Research Unit (PHRU) within Dalhousie University's Department of Community Health and Epidemiology.

PHRU is a university-based research and support group conducting systematic research into population health, health services and their inter-relationships.The Province of Nova Scotia supplies PHRU with complete Medicare, Pharmacare and Hospital files suitable for research purposes. The Unit also has access to a variety of other data sources including clinical databases and large scale population surveys.

Although this research is based on data obtained from PHRU, the observations and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of PHRU.

• Resource Intensity Weight (RIW):
  A measure of the resources utilized during a particular hospital separation, relative to the resources utilized by the average separation. RIWs are only in the CIHI hospital data.
  
• Resource Intensity Weight (RIW) Values

• SAS Tips:
  
  • Age Calculation:    See Patient Age
  
  
  
  • Converting Formats from v6 to v8:
    
    libname v6lib v6 '[whatever.directory]';
    libname v8lib v8 '[whatever.directory]';
    
    proc copy in=v6lib out=v8lib memtype=catalog;
    select formats;
    run;
    
    
  • Many-to-Many Merge using SQL:    Click for SAS Code
    
    
  • Parsing Formatted Values:    IF PUT(variable,$format.)=...
    
    
  • Summary Array:    Click for SAS Code
  
  

• SAS Tutorials:
  
  • SAS Procedures: View Adobe Acrobat SAS Procedures Outline
  • Tabulation: View Adobe Acrobat Tabulation Tutorial

• Statistics Canada Census Dictionary
  
  • 1996 Census Dictionary
  • Census Counts vs. Census Estimates