Description: An overview of the issues behind reimbursing providers on a bundled or packaged basis. The article presents the potential advantages offered by the proponents as well as the criticisms and obstacles to implementing this type of payment system.

Description: Presenter discusses issues related to alternative care, as well as SOA activity in regard to alternative care. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 1.

Description: This article from major US payers describes palliative care as a scaleable means of improving quality and reducing costs during serious and complex illness.

Description: Presenter examines federal and state efforts at parity in the area of mental health insurance. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: A proposal to reform the health care provider payment system through: a national fee schedule, shifting more reimbursements to primary care providers, better integration of hospital & physician fees, evidence based care, pay for performance, and a better provider risk sharing mechanism.

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.

Description: In the course of consulting engagements, actuaries almost always find they need one or more of the following resources: -Healthcare data, which may be at the individual patient level or on a particular population. -Health services research studies which describe, summarize, try to alter, or predict patients’ use of health resources. -Health policy information, which describe public or private actions which affect the access, cost and quality of medical care. This document describes the ever-changing resources and specifies where they may be obtained.