Description: Congress has been debating a revision to Medicare Advantage payments including limiting payments to the Medicare Fee-For-Service FFS cost. A county-specific impact study to the benchmark payment rates for each county nationally based on the FFS limitation criteria was performed. This article includes results for Florida, California, Pennsylvania and New York.

Description: An excerpt from the 2003 Annual report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Trust Funds which describes the basic methodology and assumptions used for the intermediate assumptions.

Description: Provides background about Prescription Drug Plans, PDPs, and the standard benefit package offered under Medicare Part D. It also provides a basic overview of the bid-development process for a PDP and summarizes some general strategies and observations used in developing the 2006 bids that will likely be used for 2007.

Description: In session 26PD of the 2004 Valuation Actuary Symposium, discussed is how the new Medicare prescription drug legislation creates a number of issues for employers and managed-care plans. Employers must determine the impact of the legislation on their retiree prescription drug costs, evaluate options for plan design and make decisions about how to reflect the effect of the legislation in their FAS 106 valuations. Managed-care plans need to review the effect of the legislation on plan design, statutory filings and financial reporting for their Medicare products.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper, The Boomers Are Coming: A Total Cost of Care Model of the Impact of Population Aging on the Cost of Chronic and Acute Conditions in the United States. The complete paper is not available online.

Description: During the SOA’s recent Living to 100 Symposium, one of the sessions that got me thinking much more deeply about the financing of public retirement plans was titled “Mortality Age Patterns: Trends and Projections.”

Description: Map of MA Regions Receiving Bids for Regional PPO Products

Description: An excerpt from the 2002 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds which describes the basic methodology and assumptions used in the estimates for the intermediate assumptions. Also, projections of program costs are presented under two alternate sets of assumptions.

Description: Issue No. 36. Issues relating to Provider Sponsored Organizations PSOs contracting with HCFA to sponsor Medicare + Choice. Article discusses revenue and the addition of non-Medicare covered benefits.

Description: This article discusses the legislative summary of the changes that will occur with the new Medigap policies, which will be effective on or after June 1, 2010. Issue No 60