The next big thing in health benefits: consumer choice

Consumers are the only ones who can affect all decision points that drive health care cost and quality. As a result, consumers' health and financial security depend on their taking more responsibility for their health care decisions and having the tools and information needed to do so successfully. This article explains the five key decision points that drive health care cost and quality, how technology aids marketplace innovations, and how employers can help advance consumer choice in order to push the health care system to deliver better care and keep inflation in check.     

Defined contribution health plan to consumer driven health benefits: evolution and experience

Today, the idea of placing more choice on employees "consuming" health care and giving them more responsibility and incentive to control health care costs and utilization is alive and thriving in the form of consumer-driven health care. This article examines the evolution of consumer-driven health benefits--including the experience of the first generation of "defined contribution" health care participants (i.e., retirees) and the results of different approaches employers have taken to early consumer-driven plan designs. The author then describes what's needed to answer the question: "Can consumer-driven health care control health cost?"     

以创新服务赢得客户满意 以国际品质打造身边实惠

刚刚过去的2010年对交通银行信用卡来说是收获颇丰的一年：在册卡量突破1600万张;卡均应收账款及卡均消费额等主要业务指标位居行业前列;服务质量不断提升;＂国际品质,身边实惠＂的品牌内涵日益深入人心,实现了快速、平稳、均衡发展。2011年是＂十二五＂规划的开局之年,为信用卡业务的发展提供了难得的机遇,     

安全性：自助服务发展的关键词

自第一台金融自助设备在国内开始使用至今,金融自助服务已快速深入到广大公众的生活和工作中,它为持卡人带来便利的同时,也降低了银行柜台服务的压力,提升银行的服务效率,并日渐成为银行在激烈的竞争中必不可少的战略手段和工具。然而,在高速发展的背后,ATM的安全问题不容忽视,并已成为影响金融行业自助服务发展的主要因素。     

Retiree health care benefits: strategies for a changing workforce.

Demographic, economic and cultural trends foretell a dramatically different environment for retiree health care coverage. This article will focus on the redesign of retiree health benefits to meet the retirement objectives of employers and employees, anticipate changing demographics, and respond to changes in Medicare and other government initiatives, including the Consumer Bill of Rights. The material will discuss recent design trends, including managed care, and present results of a study the author co-authored for the Kaiser Family Foundation on changes in retiree health plans.     

Retiree health benefits in the United States: a strategic critical management review

This article provides a critical review of studies associated with retiree health benefits in the United States. An attempt is made to determine if logical conclusions or trends could be identified regarding this issue of health care policy debate. The forms of retiree health benefits are covered, as is a discussion of Medigap policies and insurance coverage for the elderly. Employer-sponsored retiree benefits and the effects of supplemental coverage on the use of services are also reviewed. Lastly, a discussion and conclusion regarding this research agenda is presented with a critical analysis of the health care policy management debate for the future.     

A lattice-based model to evaluate variable annuities with guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits under a regime-switching model

We consider the problem of evaluating variable annuities with a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit under a regime-switching model. We propose a trinomial lattice model to approximate the evolution of the investment fund value and the policy value at inception is computed through a backward induction scheme. Finally, the insurance fee is computed as the solution of the equation that makes the contract actuarially fair. Numerical results are reported to illustrate the consistency of the proposed model.     

The benefits of a partnership approach to disability management

Taking a partnership approach to disability management and fostering a return-to-work culture can significantly reduce disability costs for employers and help disabled employees successfully return to work. Two rehabilitation case managers from ReliaStar Life Insurance Company share their perspective and experience, including three case studies that illustrate successful case management intervention and return-to-work strategies.     

The benefits of a right to silence for the innocent

This article shows that innocent suspects benefit from exercising their right to silence during criminal proceedings. We present a model in which a criminal suspect can either make a statement or remain silent during police interrogation. At trial, the jury observes informative but imperfect signals about the suspect's guilt and the truthfulness of the suspect's statement. We show that a right to silence benefits innocent suspects by providing them with a safer alternative to speech, as well as by reducing the probability of wrongful conviction for suspects who remain silent with and without a right to silence.     

Health transitions in a globalising world: towards more disease or sustained health?

In this paper, we argue that the concept of transitions is a useful way to address future changes in the health status of the world due to the processes of globalisation. To that end, we discuss the current forces affecting human health and the health transitions we have seen in the past. Next, we describe developments in the health status of populations according to three potential future ‘ages’: the age of emerging infectious diseases, the age of medical technology and the age of sustained health. Future health transitions are explored along the lines of four development paths (scenario groups), defined along two dimensions (global versus regional dynamics and emphasising economic objectives versus environmental and equity objectives). We conclude that managing the health transition effectively will require a micro- and macro-approach, taking into account the social, cultural and behavioural determinants of health.     

Personal responsibility in health benefits: looking backward, looking forward

Consumerism and care management continue to make inroads as cost-containment strategies for employers, as well as for employees who have endured the steady rise in benefit cost-shifting. The latest statistics and trends point the way to a new era of personal responsibility in health benefits. The author describes how this trend has grown, and where it is leading.     

Retiree health care benefits: new rules, new strategies.

Two recent court decisions in a retiree health care benefits age discrimination case are likely to bring changes to employer-sponsored retiree health care. After reviewing the cases and how the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has responded to them, this article discusses employer implications. Although the court decisions add complexity to retiree health plan design, they also provide employers with the valuable opportunity to analyze the match between their retiree health plans and business needs.     

A new mixture cure model under competing risks to score online consumer loans

In credit scoring, survival analysis models have been widely applied to answer the question as to whether and when an applicant would default. In this paper, we propose a novel mixture cure proportional hazards model under competing risks. Most existing mixture cure models either do not consider competing risks or generally assume that a subpopulation of subjects is immune to any risk from all the competing risks. Compared with existing models, the proposed model is more flexible since it assumes that a subpopulation of subjects is immune to a subset of risks instead of being immune to all the risks. To estimate model parameters, we derive the likelihood function of the proposed model, based on which an expectation maximization estimation algorithm is developed. A simulation algorithm is designed to simulate time-to-event observations from the proposed model, and simulation studies are conducted to verify the proposed methodology. A real world example of credit scoring for online customer loans based on the proposed model is demonstrated.