Description: Disease management [DM] is a health care intervention targeted to individuals with chronic diseases chronics. To justify the investment by payers in DM, it is important to demonstrate beneficial clinical and financial outcomes. This paper analyzes the health cost trends between the chronic and non-chronic populations. Paper 7 of an 8 paper series on 'An Introduction to Care Management Interventions and Their Implications for Actuaries'.

Description: Report from research project that reviewed and inventoried the range of quality and efficiency measures that demonstrate the performance of hospitals and physicians. Besides outlining key areas of consideration for quality and efficiency measurement, this report also describes future opportunities for actuaries and other health professionals interested in this evolving area. The inventory part of the report is in a separate document.

Description: This is an article about population risk management and using it to reduce health insurance costs.

Description: This paper applies the principles and methodologies discussed in earlier papers in this series to measure cost savings from a two-year disease management DM program for the 200,000 Medicare members of a regional managed care plan. We then study how savings estimates change when we allow for four variations in key assumptions: methods for identifying or excluding plan members, requirements for eligibility in the health plan, methods for calculating health care trend and study design. Finally, we also examine the sensitivity of these results to product type by comparing the Medicare results to those of the Commercial HMO/POS product. Paper 8 of an 8 paper series titled: “Evaluating the Results of Care Management Interventions: Comparative Analysis of Different Outcomes Measures” sponsored by the Society of Actuaries’ Health Section and the Committee on Knowledge Extension Research.

Description: Summary of cost-reduction and quality improvement within the disease management sector. Paper 4 of an 8 paper series on 'An Introduction to Care Management Interventions and Their Implications for Actuaries'.

Description: A study on stochastic simulation literature as it applies to a health actuary.

Description: This is the abstract to the paper, A Comparative Analysis of Chronic and Non-Chronic Insured Commercial Member Cost Trends.

Description: Abstracts of two health articles from the NAAJ: 1. Multi-State Actuarial Models of Functional Disability and 2. Anatomy of a slow-motion death-spiral.

Description: This is one of a series of SOA-sponsored papers on the subject of Evaluating the Results of Care Management Interventions. This paper addresses the theory of measurement design and provides a practical evaluation of the most common designs for the practitioner.

Description: Full version of Health Section News, Issue No. 55, May 2007.