Glossary: AI and privacy terms for IME work
Short version: 20 terms, each defined for how it matters when an independent medical examiner picks or uses an AI tool. Terms are linked from every other page on this site.
Limits: We read each product's help pages, terms and pricing on 2026-11-12 and did not test how any product handles PHI. Plans, prices and laws change, and nothing here is legal advice for your state.
Privacy and contract terms
- BAA (business associate agreement)
- The contract HIPAA requires between a covered entity and a vendor that handles PHI on its behalf. For AI, it has to name the product and plan you use, and usually lists which features it covers.
- Business associate
- A person or company that creates, receives, keeps or sends PHI for a covered entity. A cloud AI tool that stores or processes your IME files is one.
- Covered entity
- Under HIPAA: health plans, clearinghouses, and health care providers who send health information electronically in standard transactions, such as billing a health plan. HHS says workers' comp insurers are not covered entities unless they are for other reasons.
- PHI (protected health information)
- Health information held by a covered entity or business associate that identifies a person or could. Every page of an IME file, the referral letter and your draft report count.
- De-identification
- Removing identifiers so data no longer counts as PHI. HIPAA allows 2 methods: Safe Harbor or an expert's determination.
- Safe Harbor
- The HIPAA de-identification method that removes 18 identifier types, including all date elements except the year. That rule is why a de-identified IME file cannot carry a chronology.
- Consumer plan
- A free or personal paid AI plan (ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Gemini on a personal account). None of the ones we read come with a BAA.
- NAIC
- The National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Its 2023 model bulletin asks insurers to govern the AI systems they use, including third-party ones; 24 states had adopted it by 2025-03-18.
AI terms
- Token
- The unit AI models read and bill in. OpenAI's rule of thumb: 1 token is about 4 characters, and 100 tokens about 75 words.
- Context window
- How much text a model can consider at once. Google describes a 1 million token window as about 1,500 pages, and warns that past it, answers can miss details.
- Hallucination
- Output that states something the source does not say, such as an invented study or a symptom no record mentions. In record work, omissions are the quieter failure.
- OCR (optical character recognition)
- Turning scanned page images into text a model can read. Faxed and handwritten records depend on it, and bad OCR causes wrong dates and numbers.
Record and report terms
- Page citation
- A reference from a statement to the page of the file it came from. It lets you, or opposing counsel, check the fact in seconds.
- Chronology
- A dated list of events in the record (visits, imaging, procedures, work status), in order, ideally with a page citation on each line.
- Deduplication
- Finding and setting aside repeated pages, such as the same MRI report faxed by 3 providers. Some tools bill per uploaded page, some per deduplicated page.
- Bates numbering
- Sequential numbers stamped on every page of a production so each page has 1 fixed reference.
- Independent medical examination (IME)
- An exam and report by a physician who does not treat the person, requested by an insurer, employer, attorney or board to answer specific questions.
- QME (qualified medical evaluator)
- A physician certified by California's Division of Workers' Compensation to perform medical-legal evaluations in disputed claims.
- Medical-legal report
- A report written to resolve a disputed claim. In California, Labor Code 4628 limits who may review records and draft its conclusions.
- NPI (National Provider Identifier)
- The 10-digit number that identifies a US health care provider. ChatGPT for Clinicians uses it to verify clinicians.