1. BASIS OF CONSOLIDATION AND PRESENTATION National Research Corporation (the  Company ) is a provider of performance measurement and improvement services, healthcare analytics and governance education to the healthcare industry in the United States and Canada. The Company s services, which are comprehensive, include data collection, healthcare analytics, best practice identification and effective delivery of value-added business intelligence that enables its clients to improve performance across key business metrics. Through its extensive array of service capabilities and industry relationships, the Company is positioned to provide healthcare information services to organizations across a wide continuum of service delivery segments. The Company has seven operating segments that are aggregated into one reporting segment because they have similar economic characteristics and meet the other aggregation criteria from the Financial Accounting Standards Board ( FASB ) guidance on segment disclosure. The seven operating segments are: NRC Picker U.S. and NRC Picker Canada, which each offer renewable performance tracking and improvement services, custom research, subscription-based educational services and a renewable syndicated service; Ticker, which offers stand-alone market information, as well as a comparative performance database to allow the Company s clients to assess their performance relative to the industry, to access best practice examples, and to utilize competitive information for marketing purposes; Payer Solutions, which offers functional disease-specific and health status measurement tools; The Governance Institute ( TGI ), which offers subscription-based governance information and educational conferences designed to improve the effectiveness of hospital and healthcare systems by continually strengthening their healthcare boards, medical leadership and management performance in the United States; My InnerView ( MIV ) and Outcome Concept Systems, Inc. ( OCS ), which provide quality and performance improvem