Description: The cost of prescription drugs is top of mind for consumers, payers and policymakers. Despite legislative efforts, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the problem remains. More than 30% of all Americans say they have not taken prescription drugs as prescribed in the last 12 months because of the expense. The purpose of this paper is to discuss an alternative to policy solutions: reimagining pharmacy financing in the commercial space using a value-based reimbursement methodology that increases transparency, encourages competition, aligns stakeholder incentives and mitigates total cost of care (TCOC) increases. This paper will demonstrate that it is possible to implement such a methodology under the current infrastructure, but one can identify limitations.

Description: An in-depth analysis of the insurance landscape in China and seven key Asia Pacific Markets, focusing on the rapid development of critical illness products and the impact of technology on insurance purchasing behaviors.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) published its first COVID-19 research brief on March 10, 2020, followed by regular updates and expansions through June 12, 2020. The comprehensive report includes a section of Key Statistics. On July 24, 2020, the SOA released a report showing updates through July 22 to selected graphs from or related to the Key Statistics section of the comprehensive report. This report provides similar updates through August 9, 2020.

Description: The Health Care Cost Trends Strategic Research Committee is looking for a research proposal that will examine the increased uptake of diabetes drugs on overall medical trends as well as the costs of individuals who are prescribed these drugs.

Description: This research report is sponsored by The Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries on the Canadian health care system. Performed by Stéphane Levert, FSA, FCIA, the study (available in French and English) estimated the future costs of the Canadian health care system, assessed the sustainability of the system over a 25-year horizon, and analyzed the implications of the changes to the Canada Health Transfer proposed on Dec. 19, 2011 by the federal government. The report summarizing the findings indicates that, without significant government intervention, the Canadian health care system in its current form is not sustainable.

Description: Read about the A Model of the Impact of Social Distancing on the Transmission Rate of a Communicable Virus.

Description: Retirement market study of Brazil in Spanish.

Description: Since the outbreak began in January, numerous research groups throughout the world have developed models to forecast the number of deaths that could result from COVID-19.

Description: In health insurance marketplaces, prospective insured individuals and groups are able to choose from a range of available plans. This study uses health care encounter data to simulate the choices faced by health insurance shoppers under a variety of conditions and measures the simulated effect of increased consumer choice and consumer information on medical loss ratios and, as a consequence, insurer profitability.

Description: This report provides highlights of a weekly survey of practices regarding the mitigation of the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. during the second half of January 2021 along with comparisons to prior half-month time periods. The survey asks about the degree to which the respondents perceive that people in their community are following 21 common mitigation practices. The responses are separated by state and compared to state level statistics regarding the level of COVID-19 infections from the Johns Hopkins COVID database for the same time period.