Description: Through the sponsorship of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Society of Actuaries partnered with Wakely to use their health care data to study the effects of COVID-19 on overall health care claims for individuals with a COVID-19 diagnosis. The conclusion of the study is that individuals with COVID-19 claims had significant increases in health care costs leading up to their months of diagnosis, as well as in the months following their diagnosis. These effects were more pronounced for individuals who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as well as for individuals with prior co-morbidities. Finally, the overall health care costs of these members plateaued at significantly higher levels than their pre-COVID baselines. In fact, all the main membership cohorts experienced claim levels that were at least 20% higher than their pre-COVID starting points.

Description: Disease management DM is increasingly encountered in health plans and employer groups as a health care intervention targeted to individuals with chronic diseases chronics. The untested assumption is that without DM, the chronic and non-chronic trends are identical. From Financing Chronic Care Monograph, M-HB05-1.

Description: This article summarizes the 1967 Surgeon General’s report on the health consequences of smoking.

Description: Transcript of the Q&A period from Session 6B: Health Status and its Impact on Mortality

Description: This is a sequel to Panjer's paper. The Walter Reeed Staging Method - WRSM - is a method that groups patients infected with HIV into various stages. This paper looks at mathematically modeling the transition process of HIV by using the WRSM. This paper argues that Panjer's results are biased and understates the average time it will take an HIV life to develop AIDS.