Description: Introduction to additional actuarial research into development of and regulatory impact, economic impact and consumer impact of prescription drugs in the United States. Intended to further educate actuaries and others who work in this area and motivate more actuarial involvement to increase transparency, increase competition, better align stakeholder incentives and better mitigate total cost of care increases

Description: This article provides a detailed description of the unbalanced subsidy provisions in the Affordable Care Act with easy to follow numerical illustrations. An understanding of the illustrative calculations is necessary to understand the subsidy implications. The article highlights some surprising and likely unintended results that will be interest to issuers, employers, consumers, regulators and policymakers. Actuaries can add expertise to their clients and to the public discussion with a proper understanding of the subsidy calculations and the resulting implications.

Description: Read the June 2017 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: Read the October 2018 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: Read the October 2017 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: Read the March 2017 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: This paper outlines a framework for assisting a STARS manager in implementing a quantitative approach to prioritize stars measures for targeted intervention

Description: Read the June 2018 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

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: This article discusses new opportunities for states to waive certain marketplace requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The article focuses on specific opportunities for states and the role that actuaries will play.