Description: There is a wide range of literature on aging and health care. We sample this literature and find it fits into the subcategories of theoretical aging, medical significance of aging, treatment of the elderly, and resource allocation to the elderly. Themes are that financial arrangements can cause inefficient and ineffective care and that care guidelines need to developed specifically for the elderly rather than extrapolating guidelines for younger patients.

Description: The purpose of the SOA project Modeling Long Term Healthcare Cost Trends for Valuation is to provide a benchmark projection of medical cost increases and provide a user-firendly model for making alternative projections. This paper presents sample output from the model, technical documentation of the model, FAQs, and a review of the literature and references.

Description: Panelists discuss recent developments that may impact health care costs over the next few years, such as: · Trends in research and treatment for various diseases · Advances in diagnoses, therapies, and medications · Various clinical trials From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 27, No. 1, Session 73

Description: This session discussion is about trends and proliferation of medical technology, what will be the impact on cost, what is on the horizon, strategies to contain the utilization of various procedures and technology. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 15, No. 1.

Description: The focus of the webcast on Modeling Long–Term Medical Trends for Valuation Purposes was a discussion of the underlying methodology of the model, a walk through of the actual model, and a review of the considerations for its practical usage by actuaries. The running time of this video is 1 hour and 3 minutes. It is a presentation of slides without audio.

Description: A compilation of feedback from actuaries in the Health Section of the affects of the ACA.

Description: Attendees learn about the Patient's Bill of Rights, pressures on managed care programs and the strategies being used to address the changing dynamics of the managed care environments. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 28, No. 2, Session 116

Description: The objective of this project is to summarize the existing literature on end of life issues of interest to actuaries, and to document a broad list of such articles. The end of life issues explored are multi-dimensional and from multiple perspectives. When considering cost implications of end of life care, it is necessary to consider cost in a broad context as it is a measure that cannot solely be defined by dollars. Other dimensions of cost, such as quality of care, family care giving, communication, patient preferences and access to care, should also be explored.

Description: This article examines the costs of mental health parity, presents the primary drivers of cost increases from legislation and shows evidence the initial cost projections were too high. From Health Section News, March 2005, Issue No. 49.

Description: Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a newer model of primary care delivery in which patients or employers pay for care directly on a membership basis; insurance and other third-party payment is not used. Early studies show significantly improved patient health outcomes and lower expenditures for DPC patients compared with similar patients receiving traditionally delivered primary care. Additional research is needed to better understand physician perspectives about the model and the role of patient selection in early results.In this session we discuss research projects that may shed light on the DPC model and on whether early results indicate more about the model or about the patients who use it.We discuss an SoA research project that interviews DPC physicians to better understand their views about the model and its early results. We also discuss a paper that analyzes characteristics of patients who receive primary care from a DPC physician and compares them to characteristics of patients who receive primary care in more traditional ways. This cross-sectional study surveys all adult patients of a convenience sample of several DPC practices. Variables include demographics, socio-economic status (SES), type of additional coverage (if any), whether DPC fees are paid by an employer, and self-reported health status. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey is the main source of comparison data. For a given cohort of demographics and additional coverage, we determine whether DPC patients have similar health status, demographics and SES as non-DPC patients. This study will provide insight into the degree of selection into DPC by observable patient characteristics.