Description: Chairperson's corner October 2014 Health Watch

Description: When setting reserves, multiple methods are often used in the creation of the reserve estimate. Judgment is warranted to combine these different estimates into a final recommendation. This paper describes two techniques that can be used to combine these estimates that may result in better accuracy and lower variance.

Description: Article describes enhanced primary care models and provides citations on whether or not health care savings have been achieved.

Description: The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) requires that essential benefits include "intensive behavioral counseling" for overweight or obese individuals with any other cardiovascular disease risk factors. These requirements can be met through online digital programs that meet the clinical standards of the recognized Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). This new branch of medicine-digital therapeutics-holds the key to delivering lifesaving interventions to those who need them the most. Omada Health’s Prevent is an example of one innovative product which has successfully translated behavioral interventions like DPP to an online setting. Sean Duffy focused on small-group support, personal health coaching, personalized and engaging design, DPP curriculum adherence and progress tracking-leveraging unique aspects of technology to enhance key elements of successful behavioral interventions. These scalable solutions can bene fit multiple players within the managed care ecosystem and are being seeded by health plan venture investments to help bend the cost curve across the industry.

Description: Letter from the editor of Health Watch

Description: This article discusses new opportunities for states to waive certain marketplace requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The article focuses on specific opportunities for states and the role that actuaries will play.

Description: This article defines population health and discusses what is needed to manage population health under value based contracts.

Description: Thank you to the contributors and those who helped. Brief description of the articles in the issue.

Description: The article describes the changes to payment structures as of 1/1/2017 and their influence to Medicare Supplement that will be happening as of 1/1/2020.

Description: The article describes the Health Sections strategic initiative for Public Health and the role of the actuary.