Description: Panelists discuss the pros and cons of using a care manager in order to receive either benefits or enhanced benefits in long term care plans. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Panel discusses the effects of reduced payment levels to many Medicare managed care organizations. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Identifying and submitting all appropriate ICD-9 diagnosis codes to CMS will result in a higher risk score for the member and increased payments to Medicare Advantage plans. Milliman's HCC prevalence study illustrates the significant variations in HCC prevalence rates by age/gender, geography, and population type and will assist plans in benchmarking the effectiveness of their own diagnosis code capture efforts.

Description: This study was sponsored by the Society of Actuaries Health Section. This paper explores the relative significance of aging as a determinant of financial cost of health care beyond age 50, with particular attention to the effect for ages 65 and older. The paper presents concepts of aging factors and aging curves, which define relative values between ages for utilization or cost of health care services. General conclusions are drawn from Medicare data that utilization and cost differ by age, but that aging factors vary across services and may be less significant at very old ages. The author then turns to the question of measuring the significance of an aging curve assumption and what accuracy is lost in the simpler alternative of a single value across an age range.

Description: Book review for An American Philosophy of Social Security written by the chairman for the original Social Security Advisory Council and discusses the original and subsequent thinking about social security.

Description: Panelists discuss different aspects of self-selection among Medicare options. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Budget concerns should not be allowed to override sound actuarial rate development in setting Medicaid capitation rates.

Description: This article describes the Health Insurance Providers Fee implemented through Section 9010 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and discusses how the fee will creates challenges in Managed Medicaid Rate development. It also offers some suggested ways to include the fee in Managed Medicaid rates.

Description: This discussion looks at the probable effects on the life insurance business due to recent changes in Social Security law and whether companies and group/self-administered retirement plans have made changes because of the amendments.

Description: The Annual Reports of the Trustees, for the Social Security Trust Funds, are cornucopia of data. However, the major focus is on projections expressed as a percentage of payroll. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that additional measures - which would supplement, rather than replace the percentage of payroll data - should be examined to evaluate the projected effect of the cash benefits OASDI program.