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

Description: Adding value in the development, production and marketing process of medical devises regulatory environment, designer/manufacturer perspective, product failure and litigation risk. Issue No. 44.

Description: This article examines two general approaches to pricing The Forecast Approach and the Rebuilding Approach. The author then supplies the reader with the best approach. From Health Watch Newsletter, March 2005, Issue No. 49.

Description: This article takes a comparative review on Medicare and Private Health Insurance and examines the cost of administration. From Health Watch Newsletter, May 2006, Issue No. 52.

Description: Recap of the Health Policy Summit held in honor of Health Affairs’ 25th anniversary.

Description: This article is directed to the payors—especially self-funded employers and TPAs—that seek to improve the health of the populations they cover in addition to administering the plan. Greater use of primary care is one way to better manage the health delivery. The results should also impact costs in a measurable way. Issue No. 59

Description: Summary of the health section council’s research project to assess the accuracy of commonly used IBNR estimation methods over a wide range of scenarios.

Description: A proposal to reform current health care market, from a 'preferred payer' system, in which Medicare and Medicaid pay less than the true cost while others must then pay more, to a 'value for money' system. This would be achieved by requiring providers to bill all patients the same rate for the same services, with a standard bundling format to make all providers' rate differences transparent. Differences between billed charges and what Medicare pays would be made up by the Medicare patient, rather than subsidized by those outside of Medicare.

Description: A proposal to address provider payment issues by gradually moving to accountable care organizations. Capitations would be risk-adjusted, non-capitated costs would be covered by hospitalization fund and stoploss, incentives for quality & effective preventive care would be tied to the amount remaining in the fund, and government involvement would be through incentives rather than mandate.

Description: This is an article about the rising costs of health care and what it means for student health care plans. Health Section News, Issue 46