Description: A discussion of the efforts to implement straight through processing and standardization of the HIPAA form for long term care claims data.

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 follow-up to the 2012 article “A Global Perspective of the Health Insurance Market” about teaching a course at the Columbia University Masters in Actuarial Science program. The course provided an overview of the health care insurance industry.

Description: Description and specifications for the health section's article-writing contest on the topic of provider payment reform.

Description: To increase awareness of current research, cognitive treatments, brain exercise programs and overall long-term care, we will be adding a regular feature to the LTC Section newsletter, tentatively called the “Cognitive Corner.” This feature will provide a place to share existing academic research and health-related outcomes related to cognitive factors. It is the hope that this information will spur thought-provoking discussions and debates that impact your work regarding these hypotheses.

Description: A discussion of the positive and negative impact of the CLASS Act on the long term care insurance industry.

Description: Analysis of the impact of disease progression and treatment on life expectancy provides perspective on the long term costs to the health care system of chronic medical conditions.

Description: Review of a report by Alan Mills introducing Complexity Science, a discipline which could help actuaries to model and manage complex systems, such as the health care system.

Description: A preview of the articles in the May 2009 issue of Long Term Care News, with a theme of focusing on the pure fundamentals of actuarial work.