Description: An actuarial model that provides financial incentives to providers to offer patients an approach that can reverse chronic disease and reduce health care costs

Description: We highlight a new approach leveraging predictive analytics to identify high risk and rising risk opioid users for more effective screening and follow-up care.

Description: Description and specifications for the health section's article-writing contest on the topic of provider payment reform.

Description: Former co-editor looks back on his work, offering thanks and vote of confidence in his successor.

Description: Editor letter about what constitutes a good Health Watch article and summary of articles.

Description: This article is focused on sustainability concerns in the ACA individual markets and what we can learn from core actuarial principles as discussed in ASOPs.

Description: This article is a brief overview of what the Health Actuarial Research Initiative, HARI, is and what the participants in HARI will be doing. HARI is a project formed by the Society of Actuaries that will develop actuarial research studying changes in health care systems.

Description: Since health care reform has made accountable care organizations a hot topic, an SOA workgroup is addressing relevant questions, including provider risk under various ACO models, limitations of the Medicare model for motivating change in the health care delivery system, strategic priorities, attribution of members, meaurement, and the roles actuaries can play.

Description: A proposal to address provider payment issues by gradually moving to accountable care organizations. Capitations would be risk-adjusted, non-capitated costs would be covered by hospitalization fund and stoploss, incentives for quality & effective preventive care would be tied to the amount remaining in the fund, and government involvement would be through incentives rather than mandate.

Description: Update on Health Section research projects and topics, including new vision and mission statements for the Health Section Council, research and communications projects, and information about the Health Actuarial Research Initiative.