Description: The Affordable Act's risk corridor program is a temporary feature that applies to individual and small group QHPs from 2014 through 2016. Designed to protect insurers against pricing uncertainty, the program appears straightforward but has many subtle consequences. In this article, we review the need for risk corridors, the calculation itself, and the implications that result.

Description: Recap of Q&A sessions held to discuss the findings and methodology of a SOA study on the cost of the newly insured under the ACA.

Description: Discussion of direct primary care and how it helps with several challenges in health care today. DPC improves care coordination, improves outcomes, improves doctor and patient satisfaction, and reduces spending. DPC successes promote the view that primary care should not be covered by insurance; rather, it should be paid for directly.

Description: Part I of a two-part series concerning the evolution of the individual market. It begins with background, discusses present markets and 2018 regulations.

Description: Opioids overdoses have contributed to increases in mortality among white American. This article gives some detail on the speed and the reach of the epidemic.

Description: NAIC Health Update from quarterly meeting. Issue No. 42.

Description: In the last 10 to 15 years, new health insurance programs have proliferated in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. The reason for this boom has been, basically, the need for insurance companies to identify and implement new or additional lines of insurance business in order to match or exceed the increased numbers of competitors now working in these markets. This is combined with the stronger reinsurance capacity that these insurance companies had access to, which can be attributed to the need for increased reinsurance protection that arose a number of years ago, when many insurance and reinsurance companies were seeking larger volumes of businesses based on the expected growth potential of the region.

Description: Key Health Issues for 2003, as identified by the Health Benefit Systems Practice Advancement Committee HBSPAC and the Health Section Council HSC of the Society of Actuaries, which will have their top priority attention.

Description: This article outlines and summarizes research from Swiss Re about the prevalence of the Health Protection Gap throughout Asia, with a particular focus on China. Authors Robert Burr and David Zhang share key statistics on the scope of the gap, which is more than 800Bn USD in China alone, and discuss the role that technology and private-public partnership can play in reducing this gap over time. Readers will come away with an understanding of the scale of the problem within the Asia region as well as new ideas on how to solve similar problems within their own region.

Description: The PPACA imposed a market share-based health insurance provider fee, known as the "Section 9010 Fee", "Health Insurer Fee", or simply the "HIF", on each “covered entity” with net premiums written in excess of $25 million that is engaged in the business of providing health insurance coverage for U.S. health risks. This article provides background information to help unpack the language behind the Section 9010 Fee and highlights a few areas of special interest including merger and acquisition-related issues, application of the Section 9010 fee to expatriate plans, and considerations regarding fee administration.