Description: A summary of Medicare reform and its effect on prescription drug coverage.

Description: This analysis provides an overview of the functional components of the managed care system. It discusses the market forces underlying the United States’ system for health care financing and delivery and suggests how market forces impact the health care industry. The analysis focuses on societal goals for health care delivery and on managed care’s effectiveness in enabling achievement of those goals. The analysis develops and uses an innovative model developed to summarize the complex interplay among the many stakeholders, or participants, in the health care system. The model provides a framework for analysis of the many relationships among stakeholders. The analysis also highlights current issues in managed care, particularly the barriers that impede collaboration among stakeholders.

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.