Glossary — Mental health

These are the jargon, acronyms, and constructs a non-expert hits in the Mental health whitepaper. Use this as a reading companion; the filing remains the source of truth.

• By-payer wait / acceptance
  Outpatient wait times and new-patient acceptance split by Medicaid, Medicare, commercial — the missing national series (KC1).
• ERISA self-funded plans
  Employer plans outside state insurance regulation; parity studies often can't see this majority (KC3).
• Mental-health parity (MHPAEA)
  Federal requirement that MH/SUD benefits not be more restrictive than medical/surgical — enforcement is the fight.
• CCBHC
  Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic — scorecard leader under several weightings.
• Crisis continuum / 988
  Mobile crisis, diversion, and the 988 lifeline system ranked ahead of asylum-scale bed rebuild.
• IMD exclusion
  Medicaid payment limit for certain large psychiatric institutions — shapes bed and residential policy.
• NAMCS
  National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey — source of psychiatrist Medicaid-acceptance estimates.
• SMI / SED
  Serious mental illness / serious emotional disturbance — populations used in scorecard weightings.
• Citogenic bed counts
  The '95% of beds gone since 1955' figure as single-root advocacy arithmetic on state-hospital beds (KC2).
• Awards vs worker stock
  SSA disabled-worker awards (flow) vs beneficiaries on the rolls (stock) — mental disorders are ~12.7% of awards, not 'one-third'.
• AOT
  Assisted outpatient treatment — court-ordered community care architecture on the scorecard.
• Network adequacy / secret shopper
  Directory listings vs real appointment offers — usable Medicaid supply, not licensed headcount.

Scope note: docs/glossary-scope.md. Challenge a definition: [email protected].