Description: Report from research project that reviewed and inventoried the range of quality and efficiency measures that demonstrate the performance of hospitals and physicians. Besides outlining key areas of consideration for quality and efficiency measurement, this report also describes future opportunities for actuaries and other health professionals interested in this evolving area. The inventory part of the report is in a separate document.

Description: Research project that reviewed and inventoried the range of quality and efficiency measures that demonstrate the performance of hospitals and physicians. Besides outlining key areas of consideration for quality and efficiency measurement, this report also describes future opportunities for actuaries and other health professionals interested in this evolving area. The inventory part of this report is in a separate document.

Description: This research report addresses two purposes: [1] to incorporate phase transitions into a copula framework, and [2] to calculate the probability of defaulting in the context of a portfolio of correlated mortgages when a contagion effect exists. Understanding and measuring the effects that contagion has on the probability of defaulting, for both single assets and portfolios of assets, are crucial to collateralized debt obligation [CDO] markets.

Description: This paper improves Chapter 2 of 'Mathematics of Pension Funding' - Part 7 Study Notes. Key formulas are derived in a more general fashion than in the Study Notes.

Description: The CSTEP 'Cluster Sampling for Tail Estimation of Probability' system is a desktop-based application to assist actuaries in efficient stochastic modeling through the implementation of Representative Scenario approaches. Its goal is to provide actuaries with an open-source HPC 'High Performance Computation' research platform to select a sample set of representative 'pivot' risk scenarios through user-specified or user-researched distance definitions.

Description: Research report sponsored by SOA to model and compare projected costs of different proposals for a Medicare prescription drug coverage plan. 3 types of costs are studied: net benefit cost estimates per member per month, continuance table data, and projected annual costs to the government over 10 years for two selected plan designs.

Description: This is the inventory part of the report from the research project that reviewed and inventoried the range of quality and efficiency measures currently available for healthcare. The goal was to outline key areas of quality and efficiency measurement and identify future opportunities for actuaries. The inventory lists the resources and provides brief descriptions of their services with links.

Description: This paper is about a concept known as the 'rate of transmission of information' or, more simply, as the 'information rate.' The authors establish the equivalence of arbitrage-free economic systems and a generalized betting model in such a way that the interpretation of the information rate, as the maximum rate of increase of an investor's capital, is preserved. As a corollary to this result, they show that the difference in the information rate between models represents the achievable incremental return associated with the superior predictor model. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1993, Vol. 3.

Description: Presents a theoretical basis for a computerized methodology for estimating biological age - a measure of time to death.

Description: This is a discussion for the paper by Manuel Gelles titled, 'Actuarial Considerations in Cost Analysis'. Commentators add their own perspectives and critiques.