Family Groups		Family Groups are used to group sets of product together, to realize economies of scale. Suppliers are allowed to bundle drugs according to a stated criteria. For example, • All bulk generic products from a given manufacturer • All unit dose generic products from a given manufacturer • All injectable anesthetic agents from a given manufacturer Once all bids are collected, they are analyzed and compared to determine the best overall pricing structure. This analysis is not as easy as comparing the quoted price for a single line item across all bids. The family groupings are comparable bid categories to allow fair comparisons.
FDA		The US Food and Drug Administration.
FDB		FirstData Bank is a provider of data and categorizations of pharmaceuticals. In particular, its National Drug Data File (NDDF) is a standard reference throughout the industry.
FECA		The Federal Employees' Compensation Act provides compensation benefits to civilian employees of the United States for disability due to personal injury (including occupational disease) sustained while in the performance of duty. Damage to or destruction of medical braces, artificial limbs, and other prosthetic devices incidental to a personal injury is also compensable. The FECA also provides for the payment of benefits to dependents if job-related injury or disease causes the employee's death. The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) administers the FECA and acts as payor.
Fee-for-service		The good ole’ way of paying for healthcare: you get sick, you pay; you get sicker, you pay some more.
FEHBP		Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
FERPA		The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a Federal law designed to protect the privacy of a student's education records. The law applies to all schools which receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student, or former student, who has reached the age of 18 or is attending any school beyond the high school level. Students and former students to whom the rights have transferred are called eligible students. Here's a FAQ kept by LRP Publications.
FERS		Federal Employees’ Retirement System.
FIFO		First in, first out method of inventory evaluation. The assumption is that the oldest inventory (first in) is the first to be used (first out).
Financial Class		For example, “self pay,” “insured,” “Medicare.”
First DataBank		See FDB.
FIP		International Pharmaceutical Federation (originally called “Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique”).
FLK		A notation found sometimes in pediatric charts. Stands for “Funny-looking kid.”
Forecast		An extrapolation of the past into the future. It is an objective computation involving data as opposed to a prediction which is subjective (i.e., human judgement only) It is best to combine objective forecasts with human judgement.
Formulary		A formulary is a list of pharmaceutical items that providers, payors, MCOs, insurance carriers, and others (e.g., PBMs) recommend for specific treatments. These items are chosen for therapeutic and/or pricing reasons. An IHS, for example, may have many formularies based upon the clinical and functional areas. A hospital or an IHS keeps its own formulary(s); in theory, individual practitioners and medical groups must keep track of a formulary for each insurance plan.
FTE		Full-Time Equivalent.
Functional Integration		The degree of integration and coordination of support functions across operating units of an IHDN (e.g., finance, human resources, strategic planning, information management, marketing and CQI).
Fx		Short hand for “fractures.” See also, Dx, Hx, Mx, Px, Rx, Sx, Tx.