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Acronym Glossary

Acronyms are often used by public and private agencies as timesaving, shorthand ways to communicate lengthy titles or basic concepts. This glossary provides a quick reference to the terms, acronyms and abbreviations commonly used by this Department.

Topics C

  • C-TAU

    County or tribal aging unit.

  • CAH

    critical access hospital

  • CAP

    Community Action Program

    Corrective Action Plan

  • Caregiver Misconduct Registry

    The Department's record of persons who while working as caregivers in specified Department-regulated facilities or for specified Department-regulated programs were found to have abused or neglected a client or misappropriated a client's property.

  • CARES

    Client Assistance for Re-employment and Economic Support System; Wisconsin's income maintenance eligibility system.

  • CARS

    Community Aids Reporting System. System changed to GEARS (Grants Enrollment, Application and Reporting System) in 2023. 

  • CBRF

    Community-based residential facility; a place in which 5 or more unrelated adults live and where they receive care, treatment, or services, but not nursing care on any permanent basis, in addition to board and room. CBRFs are licensed by DHS under ch. HFS 83 rules.

  • CCS

    Comprehensive Community Services - for Persons with Mental Disorders and Substance-Use Disorders, provides a flexible array of individualized community based psycho-social rehabilitation services authorized by a mental health professional to consumers with mental health or substance use issues across their lifespan.

  • CDC

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a division of HHS.

  • CERT Request

    A personnel form used to obtain permission to take action to fill a vacant position.

  • Certification

    A type of approval in the form of a written assurance or declaration that an individual, household, service provider or program meets specified conditions for receiving something or doing something as, for instance, a household to receive food stamps or a health care provider to receive reimbursement for providing services to Medicaid-covered patients.

  • CFR

    Code of Federal Regulations.

  • CHAP

    Community Housing Alternatives Program; provides Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority financing (generally, revenue bond authority) to developers of housing for low-income elderly and chronically disabled persons.

  • Chapter 252

    of the Wisconsin Statutes: prevention and control of communicable diseases.

  • Chapter 254

    of the Wisconsin Statutes: environmental health.

  • Chapter 51

    of the Wisconsin Statutes: commitment for treatment of mental illness; and services for persons who are mentally ill, developmentally disabled, alcohol-abusing or drug abusing.

  • Chapter 971

    of the Wisconsin Statutes: includes criminal commitments of the mentally ill. A criminal commitment to a mental health facility is for the purpose of examining a defendant with respect to competency to proceed, treatment directed at regaining competency or for treatment after a finding of not guilty due to mental disease or defect.

  • Chapter 980

    of the Wisconsin Statutes; civil commitments of sexually violent persons.

  • CHAW

    Children's Health Alliance of Wisconsin

  • CHIP

    Children's Health Insurance Program

  • CHIPPs

    Community Health Improvement Process and Plans are required by Wisconsin State Statutes from communities to develop and implement local health plans to address health conditions impacting their residents.

  • Chore Services

    A variety of nonprofessional services for clients provided or purchased by county social service or human service departments, including lawn care, shopping, errands.

  • CHOW

    change of ownership

  • CHSD

    County human services department organized under s. 46.23, Wisconsin Statutes.

  • CLIA

    Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, PL 100-578, and implementing final federal regulations, 42 CFR 493.

  • CLU

    Clinical Lab Unit (CLIA -DQA)

  • CMMI

    Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation

  • CMO

    Care Management Organization

  • CMS

    Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration), in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

  • CNA

    certified nursing assistant

  • CNM

    certified nurse midwife

  • CNP

    certified nurse practitioner

  • CNS

    Clinical Nurse Specialist

  • COBRA

    Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

  • Community Integration Program (CIP)

    Community Integration Program: CIP-IA is for persons relocated or diverted from DD centers; CIP-IB is for developmentally disabled persons relocated or diverted from nursing homes; CIP II is for elderly and physically disabled persons diverted or relocated from nursing homes to appropriate community settings with the assistance of home and community

  • Community Living Arrangements

    A generic name for community-based residential facilities for adults (CBRFs), group homes for children, and private child care institutions, for purposes of s. 46.03(22), Wisconsin Statutes, dealing with the siting of these facilities and overriding of local zoning ordinances.

  • Conditions of Participation

    Usually refers to federal regulations governing provider certification under Medicare. Under a federal-state contract, DHS/OQA certifies that hospitals, home health agencies, hospices and other health care providers comply with those regulations and therefore may participate in Medicare.

  • COOP

    Continuity of Operations

  • COP

    Community Options Program; a Department-financed, county-administered program to reduce the number of persons admitted to and resident in nursing homes; involves assessing the need of MA

  • COWSS

    County Oral health Wisconsin Surveillance System

  • CPI

    Center for Program Integrity

    Consumer Protection Investigator

  • CPT

    Current Procedural Terminology

  • CRC

    Civil Rights Compliance.

  • CRD

    Chronic renal disease; see also ESRD.

  • CRS

    Community Recovery Services (CRS) provides three specific services (Community Living Supportive Services, Supported Employment and Peer Supports) under the umbrella of psychosocial rehabilitation.

  • CSA

    Client services assistant.

  • CSBG

    Community Services Block Grant.

  • CSFP

    Commodity Supplemental Food Program offers free, nutritious foods to eligible low-income seniors aged 60 years and older.

  • CSP

    Community support program; in communities, a program that coordinates care and treatment services provided to persons with severe and persistent mental illness. Regulated under ch. HFS 63 Adm. Code.

  • CT Scanner

    Computed tomography scanner; a medical diagnostic device which uses radiographic and computer techniques to produce cross-sectional images of head and body.-

  • CWC

    Central Wisconsin Center, a DHS residential facility in Madison for developmentally disabled persons.

  • CYSHCN

    Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program within the Division of Public Health.
Last revised February 14, 2024