medication category

med_cat

clinical

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

A classification grouping assigned to a pharmaceutical substance based on therapeutic class, drug type, or formulary tier within EHR, PBM, and pharmacy claims systems. Used to organize drug utilization reporting, formulary management, prior authorization rules, and clinical decision support logic across healthcare data platforms.

Standard Abbreviation

med_cat

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  med_cat VARCHAR(20),  -- medication category (max 20 chars)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  med_cat as medication_category
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

Risk stratification and population health analytics
CMS-HCC risk adjustment and RAF score calculation
Quality measure attribution and HEDIS reporting
Clinical data warehouse schema design
Value-based care contract performance tracking

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
med_cat

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  med_cat      VARCHAR(20),  -- medication category (max 20 chars)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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