Description: The article reviews high-deductible health plans and poor reimbursement for mental health providers as being the root of 3 devastating problems facing the US.

Description: Panelists discuss their research study into actuarial issues stemming from care and disease management programs. Topics include programs, interventions, and measuring outcomes. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 31, No. 2, Session 31

Description: Discussion of the separate and joint effects of obesity and diabetes on disability and mortality, and ways these effects can be used to improved insurance pricing and reserving, reverse the increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, and improve current projections of disability and mortality risks.

Description: Actuaries are increasingly being called upon to advise management about the value of medical management programs and interventions. This session discusses disease management outcome measurements and the cost vs value issues. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 30, No. 1, Session 111

Description: Most health care delivered in the United States is based on the acute care model: it is episodic has a beginning, middle and end usually the patient recovers and interventions are designed to target a specific pathophysiologic abnormality. Chronic disease care, in contrast, often has no clear beginning and no end the focus is on managing over the long term with prevention of progression and complications. Further, many chronic diseases “travel together” comorbidities: for example, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease CAD, heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral arterial disease and renal dysfunction are often found together.

Description: A study of disability experience examines cost burden and degree of disability, and how these measures vary across different subpopulations.

Description: This article discusses a study of the impact of the drug infliximab on Crohn's disease patients. This study had been approved in response to an SOA request for proposals for research on the health cost and utilization effects of a specific prescription drug.

Description: This session takes a fresh look at the issues related to acute care focus and the challenges of providing coordinated care for chronic conditions in the United States. Topics include mental-health disorders, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 31, No. 2, Session 89