Description: Healthcare costs have been rising faster than general inflation for many years. Early models that predicted this past pattern projected healthcare expenditure growth that continued to outpace total expenditure growth leading to the fallacious position that the whole of the US economy would ultimately be consumed by healthcare. The Society of Actuaries' Pension Section and Health Section Research teams commissioned Professor Thomas E. Getzen of Temple University to construct a resource model for the projection of long term healthcare cost trends that includes capacity constraints to ensure the long-term projection is rational. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements. This is a zip file containing the following: 1. A background paper on the creation of the health trend model, 2. The model, programmed in Microsoft Excel [xls format], that projects per-person expenditures and growth rates through 2099 using baseline assumptions, but also permits the flexibility for user–inputted alternative assumptions, and 3. Technical documentation providing transparency and support for the ultimate results.

Description: This article describes the functions of the National Center for Health Statistics which serves as the focal points for U.S. health statistics. The NCHS data collection program goes beyond the important vital statistics. The Center produces data on the extent of illness and disability in the population.

Description: This article discusses the causes of the 1918 influenza pandemic, the reasons it occurred and the likelihood that it could happen again. In addition, the author discussed ways, in general, to model and manage risks that occur infrequently, yet have a significant impact.

Description: Actuarial Perspectives on COVID-19: June 10 Twitter Chat with the Society of Actuaries

Description: MHPAEA prohibits health plans from imposing financial requirements or treatment limitations on behavioral health benefits that are more restrictive than those applied to medical and surgical benefits. MHPAEA's regulations define treatment limitations to include nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs), which are benefit design features that are not numerical, but otherwise limit the scope or duration of benefits.

Description: This is the Introductory Study Note for the Society of Actuaries Group and Health-Company/Sponsor Perspective examination for Spring 2012 that will be given on Friday, April 27th, from 8:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

Description: This discussion at the 1968 Annual Meeting covers various individual life and health insurance topics including new health benefits, health underwriting, life insurance guaranteed insurability, conditional receipts and term insurance.

Description: The presenters will cover the variation in risk adjustment approaches used across state Medicaid programs and compare them to other Federal programs. Additionally, recent developments, such as the use of OCR to extract data from medical charts for risk adjustment, will be discussed.

Description: The article documents the efficacy of infra-low frequency neurofeedback regarding how it improves patient no show rates, decreases mental health symptoms by 40% or more, and self-harm and suicidal ideations.

Description: ACA risk adjustment has now been in play for years. The original intent of risk adjustment was to help stabilize the market through measuring risk levels of each issuer. However, the risk adjustment program may have introduced additional uncertainty due to annual market shifts and model changes, making risk adjustment estimation is a difficult task. This article analyzes the results over time, including impacts from market changes and model changes.