Description: In this era of rising health care costs, numerous efforts have been made to link quality and cost through multiple approaches. This is a report of a study, conducted by MPRO under contract with the SOA, in which they evaluate whether quality pays or not in an inpatient setting by carefully selecting a few hospitals in Southeast Michigan and retrospectively calculating their return on investment [ROI] in quality improvement [QI] activities within their organization.

Description: Introduces the new behavioral finance subgroup and talks about why such a subgroup is needed.

Description: This article describes seven results from behavioral finance that actuaries may find useful: heuristics, the endowment effect, loss aversion, prospect theory, satisficing, strategic thinking and agent-based modeling.

Description: From a session at the Health/Pension Spring Meeting held in New Orleans, Louisiana June 15-17, 2005 Panelists discussed some of the research behind understanding decision-making and how this type of research can be used to enhance the modeling of consumer choice. Discussion of the field of behavioral economics and its potential application in improving assumptions for modeling health care purchasing.

Description: The SOA's health leadership met earlier this year for an all day meeting in New York. A significant portion of that meeting was spent discussing current challenges facing the U.S. health care system and how the SOA can best serve its members by addressing top priority issues. This article from The Actuary outlines four particular issues.