Description: Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a newer model of primary care delivery in which patients or employers pay for care directly on a membership basis; insurance and other third-party payment is not used. Early studies show significantly improved patient health outcomes and lower expenditures for DPC patients compared with similar patients receiving traditionally delivered primary care. Additional research is needed to better understand physician perspectives about the model and the role of patient selection in early results.In this session we discuss research projects that may shed light on the DPC model and on whether early results indicate more about the model or about the patients who use it.We discuss an SoA research project that interviews DPC physicians to better understand their views about the model and its early results. We also discuss a paper that analyzes characteristics of patients who receive primary care from a DPC physician and compares them to characteristics of patients who receive primary care in more traditional ways. This cross-sectional study surveys all adult patients of a convenience sample of several DPC practices. Variables include demographics, socio-economic status (SES), type of additional coverage (if any), whether DPC fees are paid by an employer, and self-reported health status. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey is the main source of comparison data. For a given cohort of demographics and additional coverage, we determine whether DPC patients have similar health status, demographics and SES as non-DPC patients. This study will provide insight into the degree of selection into DPC by observable patient characteristics.

Description: An update on HMO market trends and reinsurance products, and services supporting them.

Description: Accurate forecasts of future health care expenditures for cohorts of elderly individuals can be especially difficult. Current techniques use average per capita costs, based on local experience, adjusted for the cohort's age, sex, institutionalization, and welfare status distribution. This paper presents a method to adjust such per capita cost estimates to reflect more accurately the likely health status of a particular cohort. The adjustment uses the cause-of-mortality profile in the local population, which is a readily available tabulation known to be highly correlated with a major proportion of total medical care expenditures for people beyond age 65. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1984, Vol. 36.

Description: Essay stating accessibility, affordability and efficiency are the key to success in the future of healthcare.

Description: Why health care inflation exceeds the Consumer Price Index CPI due to tax implications. Issue No. 37.

Description: Drivers of Health Care Affordability. Issue No. 45.

Description: In one way or another, COVID-19 has affected everyone’s lives in theUnited Kingdom, with increased evidence of the magnitude of the direct and indirect impacts on health and wellbeing becoming more widely available. Recently, it has been predicted that 10 million people will require new or additional mental health support services in England as a direct result of the pandemic, for the next three to five years.

Description: This article talks about the ultimate health care cost trend rate ssumption in retiree medical liability valuation work. Issue No. 59

Description: Overview of the book: Overtreated, Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.

Description: This article presents a view of health care as an economic system, suggests a framework for classifying current criticisms of the system, and offers references for further reading.