Description: Introduction to population health, a collaborative discipline that seeks to leverage all the determinants of health personal behaviors, medical care and the public health infrastructure, as well as the social and economic context at the community and national level to maximize the health of populations.

Description: An overview of the Medicare Supplement landscape and the critical factors for successfully pricing and managing this product line amidst the challenges that exist.

Description: Update on Health Section research projects and topics, including new vision and mission statements for the Health Section Council, research and communications projects, and information about the Health Actuarial Research Initiative.

Description: This article summarizes a 2010 disability research project that explored offsets of benefits for group long-term disability plans.

Description: This is the complete January 2012 issue of Health Watch.

Description: Explanation of Medicare Advantage STAR rating program as it relates to payment rates for MA bids. Also describes important features of the program from an actuarial perspective, how the components of the STAR rating are calculated and implications and considerations for actuaries.

Description: This article discusses the use of parametric distributions to model health care cost.

Description: This article will consider several issues arising from ACO budgeting and pricing of stoploss coverage, including: 1) attribution of members; 2) claim carve outs; 3) ambiguous stoploss terms; 4) providers gaming the system and 5) credibility of data.

Description: Summary of Health Section Council elections, special interest groups, and activities during 2012.