LA LA Lead Agent

LAN Local Area Network A data network located on the user's premises in which

serial transmissions are used for direct data

communication among data stations.

06/28/07

LCM Life Cycle Management

LCSW Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Local Person Administration Database 06/20/07

LDSIP Laboratory Data Sharing and Interoperability Project 07/09/04

LEA Law Enforcement Agency 07/09/04

LEDI Laboratory Electronic Data Interchange 07/09/04

LG Loan Guarantee 07/09/04

LGY Loan Guarantee 07/09/04

LIBDP Linked Infant Birth Death Program 07/09/04

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

LIFO Last In/First Out

LJWG Laboratory Joint Working Group 07/09/04

LLR&SP Limb Loss Research & Statistics Program A joint venture of Johns Hopkins University and the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

07/12/07

LOCO LOCO Government Owned, Contractor Operated

LOE LOE Level of Effort

LOI Letter of Intent 07/09/04

LOINC Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes A database that provides a set of universal names and

ID codes for identifying laboratory and clinical

observations.

06/20/07

LQS Lexicon Query Service 07/09/04

LRC Learning Resources Center 07/09/04

LSOA Longitudinal Survey of Aging Follows individual/patient groups longitudinally across a

continuum of episodes of care allowing analysis of

process and outcomes, over many in-andout-patient

episodes.

06/20/07

LSTAT Life Support for Trauma and Transport 07/09/04

LT Lieutenant

LTC Lieutenant Colonel

LTC Long Term Care 07/09/04

LTOP Lease to Ownership Plan

LVA Leadership VA A VA based executive development program which

seeks to contribute the building of leaders within the

Department of Veterans Affairs.

06/28/07

LWOP Lease With Option to Purchase or Leave Without Pay

M&ROC Medical and Regional Office Center 07/09/04

M21-1MR

A guide for use by VBA staff to determine outcomes of

your claims

MAC Management Advisory Consortium An access control regime wherein resource access

control policy information is always managed by a

designated authority, regardless of who creates the

resources.

06/20/07

MAC VA Medicare Analysis Center 07/02/07

MAC Maximum Allowable Cost The MAC is the highest price a state Medicaid agency

will pay for a particular pharmaceutical. The MAC varies

over time and by state.

MACOM Major Command (Army)

MADSS Management and Decision Support System An electronic data entry system for reporting and

tracking national cemetery workload and personnel

data.

06/25/07

MAF MUMPS Audio Fax 07/09/04

MAISRC Major Automated Information Systems Review Council

MAJCOM MAJCOM Major Command (Air Force)

MAJOM Major Command (Air Force)

MAMOE Medical Administration and Miscellaneous Operating

Expenses

07/09/04

MAN Metropolitan Area Network Level data and communications network which operates

over metropolitan or campus areas and recently has

been expanded to nationwide and even worldwide

connectivity of high-speed data networks.

06/25/07

MAP Multi-Assessment Program 07/09/04

MAR Medical Administration Record 07/09/04

MARC Multi-Technology Automated Reader Card 07/09/04

MARG Management Applications Requirements Group 07/09/04

MAS Medical Administration Service Located at each VAMC, they are responsible for patient

medical records, communications (Mailman, telephones,

etc.), administration of clinics, and special examination

programs.

06/28/07

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

MAS Multiple Award Schedule

MATMO Medical Advanced Technology Management Office 07/09/04

MAVERIC Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research &

Information Center

06/13/07

MBDA Minority Business Development Agency

MBPS Megabits per second 07/09/04

MC Medical Center 07/09/04

MCAS Marine Corps Air Station

MCB Marine Corps Base

MCCF Medical Care Cost Fund 07/09/04

MCCR Medical Care Cost Recovery A program at each VAMC designed to recoup

reimbursement from veterans’ insurance companies and

other sources.

06/20/07

MCHSPR Midwest Center for Health Services and Policy

Research (now: Center for Management of Complex

Chronic Care CMC3)

06/20/07

MCO Managed Care Organizations 07/09/04

MCP Managed Care Program

MCS Managed Care System 07/09/04

MDC Major Diagnostic Category A classification system grouping DRGs of related

diagnoses, typically grouped by body system.

06/20/07

MDC Major Diagnostic Category The MDC is a classification system that represents a

group of similar Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs). Each

MDC typically involves a single organ system of the

body.

MDE M Data Extraction 07/09/04

MDR Meta Data Registry MDR will contain information about data element

standards and a catalog of data within existing systems

that map to those standards.

06/25/07

MDRC Management Decision and Research Center 07/09/04

MDRC Management Decision Resource Center

MDS Minimal Data Set 07/09/04

MDS-HC Minimum Data Set Home Care 07/09/04

MEDCOM Medical Command

MEDIPRO Medical District Initiated Peer Review Organization 07/09/04

MEDNET Medical Network 07/09/04

MEDPAR Medicare Provider Analysis Review (file) The MEDPAR file is a hospital discharge database

containing records for Medicare beneficiaries who were

discharged in a given year. CMS maintains the MEDPAR

database.

MEO Most Efficient Organization 07/09/04

MEPRS Medical Expense and Performance Reporting System

MEPS Medical Expenditure Panel Survey MEPS is the third (and most recent) in a series of

national probability surveys conducted by the Agency

for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on the

financing and utilization of medical care in the United

States [link: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov].

07/20/07

MeSH Medical Subject Headings 07/09/04

METADATA Vista imaging metadata Contains data descriptions. 06/25/07

METRIC Measurement Excellence and Training Resource

Information Center

06/13/07

MFCC Marriage, Family Child Counselor

MGIB Montgomery GI Bill Benefits for veterans that are divided into four separate

categories each with it’s own sub categories and

eligibility criteria.

06/25/07

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

MGW Migration Gateway Allows for VBA interconnectivity and interoperability to

existing equipment as well as to the new modernization

equipment.

06/25/07

MHICM Mental Health Intensive Care Management 07/09/04

MHS Military Health System 07/09/04

MHSS Military Health Services System 07/09/04

MHV My HealtheVet 06/13/07

MIB Medical Information Bus (standard) 07/09/04

MICU Medical Intensive Care Unit 07/09/04

MIMC Medical Information Management Committee 07/09/04

MIME Multimedia Internal Mail Extensions 07/09/04

MIPR Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request

MIRECC Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center 07/09/04

MIRMO Medical Information Resources Management Office A VA organization in Headquarters which oversees the

VISTA development and support functions performed by

the ISC's.

06/20/07

MIS Management Information Systems The total of all information resources, manual and

automated, and their application to the normal

functions of running an organization - management,

administration, problem solving, etc.

06/20/07

MIS Management Information System

MISD Management Information Software Development 07/09/04

MISS Medical Information Security Service 07/09/04

MIT Means Indicator Test 07/09/04

MMS Materiel Management Service

MMSO Military Medical Support Office 07/09/04

MOD Medical Officer of the Day A licensed, privileged medical physician who provides

medical and administrative coverage for the hospital

during other than regular working hours.

06/20/07

MOF Meta-Object Facility MOF's primary purpose is to define CORBA interfaces

for information models defined in terms of the MOF

model using standard interfaces and interoperable

semantics.

06/25/07

MORC Mobile Outreach Clinic 07/09/04

MOU Memorandum of Understanding A written statement outlining the terms of an

agreement between two or more departments or

agencies.

06/20/07

MOVE Management of Overweight Veterans Everywhere Exercise and healthy eating program for veterans and

employees

07/17/08

MPA Multiple Project Assurance (obsolete refer to FWA) 07/09/04

MPAB Multidisciplinary Advisory Board 07/09/04

MPCR Monthly Program Cost Report 06/13/07

MPD Minimal Patient Dataset 07/09/04

MPI Master Patient Index 07/09/04

MPI/CIRN-PD Master Patient Index/CIRN Patient Demographics 07/09/04

MPI/PD Master Patient Index/Patient Demographics The means for locating a patient record in a numeric

identification system.

06/20/07

MPIL Master Patient Information Locator 07/09/04

MPL Master Patient Locator 07/09/04

MPPR Monthly Performance and Progress Report

MRA Medicare Remittance Advice 07/09/04

MRB Merit Review Board 07/09/04

MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging 07/09/04

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

MRS Medical Research Service Software that allows sites to receive an Explanation of

Benefits (EOB) from Medicare (CMS).

06/25/07

MRTS Message Routing and Translation System 07/09/04

MS Microsoft 07/09/04

MS IE Microsoft Internet Explorer 07/09/04

MS IE3 Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 3) 07/09/04

MS IIS Microsoft Internet Information Server 07/09/04

MSA Metropolitan Statistical Area 07/09/04

MSA Medical Services Assistant (type of contract)

MSAC Medical Situational Awareness & Command and

Control

07/09/04

MSG Management Science Group 07/09/04

MSI Master Subject Index 07/09/04

MST

Military Sexual Trauma; Sexual assault or rape upon a

member of the military by a member of the military

whether male or female.

MST Military Sexual Trauma 07/09/04

MTF Medical Treatment Facility/Facilities 07/09/04

MUGA Multiple Gated Acquisition 07/09/04

MUMPS Massachusetts General Hospital Utility

Multiprogramming System

A programming language used in the VA to develop

VISTA application packages.

06/20/07

MUMPS Massachusetts General Hospital Utility

Multiprogramming System

MUMPS is a software system used by VA to create

DHCP, the predecessor of VISTA. A MUMPS program is

necessary in order to extract raw data from VISTA.

MVR Master Veteran Record 07/09/04

MWAPI M Windows Application Program Interface The M language standard that defines how M

programmers will be able to interface information into a

Windows environment.

06/20/07

NAA National Association of Area Agencies on Aging 07/09/04

NAB Naval Air Station

NABR National Association for Biomedical Research 07/09/04

NAC National Acquisition Center 07/09/04

NAD(D) Non-Active Duty (Dependent)

NAGE National Association of Government Employees A major union of Federal employees including VA

employees.

06/20/07

NAGIS National Advisory Group for Information Security 07/09/04

NAHDO National Association of Health Data Organizations 07/20/07

NAI Network Associates Incorporated 07/09/04

NAMCS National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 07/09/04

NANP North American Numbering Plan Allows virtually anyone to call into your

videoconference center and allows you to call virtually

everyone who also employs the NANP configuration.

06/20/07

NAPA National Academy of Public Administration NAPA was tasked by Congress to perform a

comprehensive study of VA claims processing. The

purpose of NAPA’s assessment of VBA is to delineate

the steps necessary to make claims processing more

efficient and less time consuming.

06/25/07

NARA National Archives and Records Administration 07/09/04

NAS Naval Air Station

NAS Network-addressable Storage Allows applications to supplement their infrastructure

by offloading storage requirements from targeted

server platforms to shared resources.

06/20/07

NAS Non-Availability Statement

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration 07/09/04

NASHIA National Association of State Head Injury

Administrators

07/12/07

NASUA National Association of State Units on Aging 07/09/04

NAT Network Address Translation 07/09/04

NAVACOS National Association of VA Chiefs of Staff 07/09/04

NAVAP National Association of VA Physicians 07/09/04

NAVHAS NAVHAS Naval Hospital

NAVSTA NAVSTA Naval Station

NBAC National Bioethics Advisory Commission 07/09/04

NBC Network Business Center

NBS National Bureau of Standards 07/09/04

NC National Cemetery Enables VA to effectively help homeless, unemployed,

previously disabled veterans return to work, achieve

independence and lead more productive lives while the

national cemeteries gain a supplemental work force.

06/25/07

NCA National Capital Area 07/09/04

NCA National Cemetery Administration 07/09/04

NCAO National Cemetery Area Office 07/09/04

NCCC National Center for Cost Containment 07/09/04

NCCIP National Cardiovascular Care Improvement Program 07/09/04

NCD National Center for Documentation Established by MIRMO to review all VISTA

documentation for compliance with the standards. It

also reproduces, assembles, and distributes VISTA

documentation to the ISCs- and health care facilities.

06/25/07

NCFC National Customer Feedback Center 07/09/04

NCHCS Northern California Health Care System 07/09/04

NCHPDP National Center for Health Promotion and Disease

Prevention

07/09/04

NCHS National Center for Health Statistics 07/09/04

NCI National Cancer Institute 07/09/04

NCID Numeric Concept Identifier 06/13/07

NCIS National Center for Information Security 07/09/04

NCITS National Committe For Information Technology

Standards

An ANSI Accredited Standards Committee on

information technology that is responsible for

developing standards in technology areas such as

multimedia, storage media, database, security,

programming languages, etc.

06/25/07

NCMA National Contract Management Association

NCMD National Card Management Directory 07/09/04

NCPDP National Council for Prescription Drug Programs 07/09/04

NCPS National Center for Patient Safety 07/09/04

NCPTSD National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Aims to advance the clinical care and social welfare of

US veterans through research, education, and training

on PTSD and stress related disorders.

07/12/07

NCQA National Committee for Quality Assurance 07/09/04

NCRAR National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research 06/13/07

NCS National Cemetery System Responsible for providing burial services to veterans

and eligible dependents. NCS also handles grave sites,

opening and closing of graves and perpetual care.

06/25/07

NCURA National Council of University Research Administrators 07/09/04

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

NCVAS National Center for Veteran Analysis and Statistics 07/09/04

NCVHS National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics 07/09/04

NDAA National Defense Authorization Act 07/09/04

NDBI National Data Base Integration 07/09/04

NDC National Drug Code A unique number assigned to a drug by the

manufacturer for identification purposes.

06/20/07

NDC National Drug Code The NDC serves as a universal product identifier for

human drugs. It contains three parts: a five-digit

labeler code that identifies the manufacturer; a threedigit

product code that identifies the medication; and a

three-digit code that identifies the packaging.

NDE National Data Extracts 06/22/07

NDEs National Data Extracts The NDEs are datasets generated from the VA Decision

Support System (DSS). Extracts containing inpatient

and outpatient services are currently available.

Pharmacy and laboratory test extracts are under

development.

NDF National Drug File A list of available drug products. This module provides

standardization of the Local Drug File in all VAMCs, for

example drug file information, drug classification, and

drug nomenclature.

06/20/07

NDF-RT National Drug File-Reference Terminology 07/09/04

NDI National Death Index 07/09/04

NDMS National Disaster Medical System 07/09/04

NDR National Drug File 07/09/04

NDS National Data Systems, division of Information

Assurance, VHA Office of Information

06/13/07

NED National Enrollment Database 07/20/07

NEDSS National Electronic Data Surveillance System 07/09/04

NEMT National Emergency Management Team 07/09/04

NEP Network Entry Point 07/09/04

NEXUS

A word meaning connection; In the VA disability

claims process a nexus letter is often required to

prove that a condition is connected to an event in

service and is thus service connected. The nexus letter

is usually best if written by a physician who has

knowledge of the veteran's history and current

condition. The author of the nexus letter must be

qualified by training and experience to render the

required opinion.

NFR National Fund Reserve 07/09/04

NGI Next Generation Internet 07/09/04

NH NH Naval Hospital

NHAMCS National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 07/09/04

NHANES National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 07/09/04

NHC Nursing Home Care 07/09/04

NHCPD National Health Care Practitioners Database 06/13/07

NHCS National Health Care Survey 07/09/04

NHCU Nursing Home Care Unit (now: CLC) 01/16/09

NHD National Help Desk 07/09/04

NHDS National Hospital Discharge Survey 07/09/04

NHE Network Health Exchange 07/09/04

NHEFS National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I

Follow-up Survey

07/09/04

NHGRI National Human Genome Research Institute 07/09/04

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

NHHCS National Home and Hospice Care Survey 07/09/04

NHII National Health Information Infrastructure (WG of

NCVHS)

07/09/04

NHIS National Health Interview Survey 07/09/04

NHPI National Health Providers Interview 07/09/04

NIAAA National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 07/20/07

NIF National Item File

NIGMS National Institute General Medicine Service 07/09/04

NIH National Institutes of Health 07/09/04

NIHI National Initiative for Health Care Informatics 07/09/04

NIMH National Institute of Mental Health 07/09/04

NIS&T National Institute for Science and Technology 07/09/04

NIST National Institute of Standards Technology Works to strengthen U.S. industry's international

competitiveness, advance science, and improve public

health, safety and the environment.

06/25/07

NLB National Leadership Board 07/09/04

NLM National Library of Medicine 07/09/04

NLT National Laboratory Test 07/09/04

NLTF VA National Laboratory Test File 07/09/04

NMCES National Medical Care Expenditure Survey 07/09/04

NMDC National Media Development Center 07/09/04

NME National Medical Enterprises 07/09/04

NMES National Medical Enterprises Survey 07/09/04

NMES/IPC National Medical Enterprises Survey/Institutional

Population Component

07/09/04

NMES/SAIAN National Medical Enterprises Survey/Survey of

American Indians and Alaska Natives

07/09/04

NMHIP National Mental Health Improvement Program 07/09/04

NMIMC Naval Medical Information Management Center 07/09/04

NMR Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 07/09/04

NNHS National Nursing Home Survey 07/09/04

NNHSF National Nursing Home Survey Follow-up 07/09/04

NOA Notice of Appeal 07/09/04

NOAVA Nationwide Office Automation for Veterans Affairs 07/09/04

NOC Network Operations Center 07/09/04

NOD Notice of Disagreement Any written communication indicating the claimant's

disagreement with a regional office decision. In the

current process, the Notice of Disagreement is the first

step in an administrative appeal to the Board of

Veterans Appeals.

06/20/07

NOIS National On-line Information System VISTA software developed to provide ISCS and IRM

services with a reporting and tacking mechanism for

site problem calls.

06/20/07

NPAD National Patient Administration Database 07/09/04

NPCD National Patient Care Database VISTA data is transmitted from the Medical Centers to

Austin into this database repository.

06/20/07

NPCD National Patient Care Database NPCD is a database of VHA services. It contains four

distinct databases: the Patient Treatment File (PTF), the

Outpatient Care File (OPC), the IPDB, and the EDR.

Researchers access extracts of the four databases

rather than drawing data from the NPCD itself.

NPDB National Practitioner Data Bank 07/09/04

Acronym Full Term Description

Date

Updated

Glossary of Acronyms

We in the Federal Government tend to use terms and abbreviations a great deal in our conversations or correspondence and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what the

mean! Here are some commonly used terms and acronyms in Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that may be unfamiliar to you.

NPI National Provider Index A unique identifier for all health care providers

(individuals and organizations) in the U. S. that will be

used in administrative, financial and other electronic

transactions.

06/25/07

NPM National Patch Module Provides on-line notification of patches for all national

packages via bulletins sent through mailman.

06/20/07

NPPD National Prosthetics Patient Database A roll-up of all prosthetic data recorded at each VHA

facility, providing information by about patient

eligibility, prosthetic treatment, date of provision, cost

and vendor.

07/20/07

NPPES National Plan and Provider Enumeration System CMS' database for storing National Provider Identifiers

(NPIs). Formerly known as NPS (National Provider

System)

10/11/06

NPR National Performance Review The Vice President's national program to streamline the

federal government, making it more efficient and more

responsive to customer needs, at lower cost to

taxpayers.

06/20/07

NPR National Partnership for Reinvention

NPRC National Personnel Records Center

NPRM Notice for Proposed Rule-Making 07/09/04

NPS National Provider System 07/09/04

NPS/SRD National Provider System/System Requirements

Definition

07/09/04

NPSB Nurse Professional Standards Board 07/09/04

NPSP National Patient Safety Partnership 07/09/04

NPTF New Patient Treatment File 07/09/04

NQADB National Quality Assurance Database 07/09/04

NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission 07/09/04

NRDC National Rural Development Council 07/09/04

NREN National Research and Education Network A group that shares research and education information

over a computer network.

06/20/07

NRI Nursing Research Initiative 06/13/07

NRMIS National Resources Management Information System Supports the VHA budgetary process through collecting

and validating the appropriate fiscal data and providing

mechanisms for review and approval.

06/20/07

NSA National Security Agency 07/09/04

NSC Non-Service Connected Condition of veterans not related to period served in the

military.

06/20/07

NSF National Science Foundation 07/09/04

NSFG National Survey of Family Growth 07/09/04

NSN National Stock Number

NSQIP National Surgical Quality Improvement Program 07/09/04

NSV National Survey of Veterans 07/09/04

NT New Technology 07/09/04

NTE Network Health Exchange 07/09/04

NTEO National Training & Education Office 07/09/04

NTIA National Telecommunications Information

Administration

07/09/04

NTIS National Technical Information Service 07/09/04

NTP National Training Priorities 07/09/04

NTS Near-Term Solution 07/09/04

NVS National VISTA Support 07/09/04

NXRN NXRN Non-expendable Record Number (LOG)