Description: More than one million Americans have died in the past decade from drug overdoses, alcohol and suicide. Drug-related deaths have tripled since 2000, alcohol-induced deaths have reached a 35-year high, and suicides increased by 28 percent from 2000 to 2015. With one-fifth of Americans affected by mental illness each year, these epidemics constitute a public health crisis that is projected to worsen without proper interventions. As insurers, employers and state agencies start to seriously address these issues, actuaries well-versed in mental healthcare issues, interventions, and quality assessment will be invaluable partners in efforts to improve behavioral healthcare treatment throughout the country. The presenters have completed significant research concerning the opioid epidemic, suicide rates and the quality of behavioral healthcare treatment in the U.S. and will share patterns and statistics regarding the state of behavioral healthcare in the country, discuss the financial and population health benefits that can be achieved through effective medical-behavioral healthcare integration, and the role that actuaries can play in supporting these efforts. Attendees will walk away understanding the extent of the drug, alcohol, and suicide epidemics in the U.S and the need for a National Resilience Strategy to address them.

Description: The SOA recently launched the Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program with the release of a new study on the economic impact of opioid abuse. In this session, results of this study will be presented along with insights and plans for the future of the Program.