Description: Summary of cost-reduction and quality improvement within the disease management sector. Paper 4 of an 8 paper series on 'An Introduction to Care Management Interventions and Their Implications for Actuaries'.

Description: This paper describes an actuarial methodology for evaluating disease management outcomes. We address several important issues in this paper: • Control of exposure, • Identification of measured populations, and • Ensuring equivalence between baseline and intervention populations. - Paper 6 of an 8 paper series on 'An Introduction to Care Management Interventions and Their Implications for Actuaries'.

Description: This article discusses a study of the impact of the drug infliximab on Crohn's disease patients. This study had been approved in response to an SOA request for proposals for research on the health cost and utilization effects of a specific prescription drug.

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: Disease Management and the impact of overlap, co-morbidity on determining cost savings and employer buy-in. Issue No. 37.

Description: This paper presents recent trends in obesity prevalence in significant population segments, including overall effects by age, gender and certain racial and ethnic groups, and discusses the ways in which obesity can influence mortality in each of these segments. It provides a synthesis of reported mortality experience relating to these behaviors by risk factors and diseases that will affect any mortality projection.

Description: This is the abstract to the paper, How the Current System Fails People With Chronic Illnesses by Reinhard Priester, Robert L. Kane, Annette M. Totten.