Description: September 2009 issue of Health Watch.

Description: Summary of the health section council’s research project to assess the accuracy of commonly used IBNR estimation methods over a wide range of scenarios.

Description: The editors preview the articles in the February 2010 issue of Health Watch.

Description: A discussion of permissible use and collection of genetic information for Health Risk Assessments and wellness programs under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008.

Description: An actuary's 30-year career, from working for several major consulting firms, to leading his own firm, to becoming a sole-practitioner consulting actuary.

Description: Summary of recent SOA-sponsored research on Enterprise Risk Management practices as applied to health insurers, self-insured plans, and health finance professionals.

Description: Recent health care reform activity has highlighted the importance of Clinical Integration in improving the quality, safety, efficiency and reimbursement infrastructure of the health care system. This article discusses relevance and implication of regulatory measures, implementation and data issues, and provides an end-to-end example.

Description: A proposal to reform current health care market, from a 'preferred payer' system, in which Medicare and Medicaid pay less than the true cost while others must then pay more, to a 'value for money' system. This would be achieved by requiring providers to bill all patients the same rate for the same services, with a standard bundling format to make all providers' rate differences transparent. Differences between billed charges and what Medicare pays would be made up by the Medicare patient, rather than subsidized by those outside of Medicare.

Description: A proposal to address provider payment issues by gradually moving to accountable care organizations. Capitations would be risk-adjusted, non-capitated costs would be covered by hospitalization fund and stoploss, incentives for quality & effective preventive care would be tied to the amount remaining in the fund, and government involvement would be through incentives rather than mandate.