Description: A rethinking of current provider reimbursement, focusing on incentives instead of simply cutting fees. The recommended 2-pronged approach would feature integrated provider organizations as well as evidence-based decision making organized around episodes of care.

Description: The editors of Health Watch have made health care reform the focus of the Sepctember 2009 issue, and provide an introduction to the issue's contents.

Description: An overview of the issues behind reimbursing providers on a bundled or packaged basis. The article presents the potential advantages offered by the proponents as well as the criticisms and obstacles to implementing this type of payment system.

Description: Presenter discusses issues related to alternative care, as well as SOA activity in regard to alternative care. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 1.

Description: This article from major US payers describes palliative care as a scaleable means of improving quality and reducing costs during serious and complex illness.

Description: Presenter examines federal and state efforts at parity in the area of mental health insurance. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

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.