Description: Discussion of direct primary care and how it helps with several challenges in health care today. DPC improves care coordination, improves outcomes, improves doctor and patient satisfaction, and reduces spending. DPC successes promote the view that primary care should not be covered by insurance; rather, it should be paid for directly.

Description: The editor of Health Watch previews the articles in this issue.

Description: An actuary talks about his career, his firm's ventures into partnerships between actuaries and health care professionals, and his role in the role in the largest actuarial malpractice settlement in history.

Description: Budget concerns should not be allowed to override sound actuarial rate development in setting Medicaid capitation rates.

Description: Discusses various aspects of allowing a health insurance policy approved in one state to be sold in another state without the latter's approval or oversight.

Description: Changes in CMS requirements for 2011 Medicare Part D plans aimed at reducing confusion surrounding the PDP selection process by making plan differences more visible to seniors. Carriers have responded by making the most significant changes in plan offerings since the program's inception, which is expected to result in membership shifts.

Description: An analysis of health insurance cost and benefit trends using January 1, 2011 data from state employee medical plan renewals.

Description: Shannon Brownlee shares her perspectives on the current health care crisis, including: inconsistent treatment patterns across providers and geographic regions, providers lacking evidence-based guidelines, the need for better independent clinical research to establish those guidelines, and the limits to consumerism's potential to fix the crisis.

Description: An announcement of the roster of the newly reconvened Health Section Research Committee, and an invitation to propose, participate in, and read about the committee's projects. informal RFP to solicit research project ideas, invitationto join project oversight groups and

Description: Introduction to population health, a collaborative discipline that seeks to leverage all the determinants of health personal behaviors, medical care and the public health infrastructure, as well as the social and economic context at the community and national level to maximize the health of populations.