care have accountability to each other, review
each other’s work and collaborate to deliver
good care.
✓ Patients can get the care and information they
need when and how they need it, including
after hours, and providers are culturally com
petent and responsive to patients’ needs.
✓ There is clear accountability for patient care.
✓ The health care system is continuously work-
ing to improve quality, value, and patients’
experiences.
• Provider Training: Physicians and health care professionals should be trained to work in the type of
team-based environment required for an organized health care system.
• Government Infrastructure Support: As appropriate, the government should support the infrastructure necessary for a well-organized health
care system, for example, aiding with the adoption of health information technology or performance improvement activities.
• Health Information Technology: Providers should
be required to implement and use electronic
health records within five years.
For more information on the report, visit
www.commonweathfund.org.
Life Expectancy Report: the Financial Planner’s
New Retirement Planning Tool
The emergence of the life-settlement industry gave
rise to vendors that provide medical underwriting services—companies specializing in allocating life expectan-cies (LEs)—because LEs are critical in setting the price of
an insurance policy being sold on the secondary market.
LE at birth is defined as the average number of years
a newborn can expect to live. The LE is influenced by
factors such as:
• Sex (females are expected to live longer than males)
• Genetics (some people are predisposed to living
longer than other people)
• Lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, using drugs,
engaging in dangerous activities or jobs)
• Availability of advanced medical technology
• Access to clean drinking water, better nutrition
LEs vary according to the place where a person lives.
For example, the LE at birth of an average American is
77. 9 years. A Canadian has a life expectancy of 80 years;
in China, it is 72 and, in Russia, 65.
Incidentally, the LE at birth is not the same as the LE
at a given age. For example, the average LE at birth is
77. 1 years for a man. However, the LE for a man at 35 is
A collection of recently published surveys, polls and
reports with information you may find useful
78. 4 years. The LE at a given age is longer because
reaching the age of 35 means that man has survived all
the dangers of death up to that age and is assured that
death will occur after that age. The assumption is that
he has a better chance of living longer than a newborn
who may or may not overcome all the risks of death
during the first 35 years of life.
LE reports prepared by medical-underwriting companies typically use the following information:
• Family’s medical history
• Attending physicians’ reports (APSs)
• Record of all attending physicians including specialists
• Preliminary application, which has a completed
HIPAA release form and advisor appointment letter
LEs can be equally useful in developing financial
strategies and managing retirement plans. Having a
more accurate idea of the client’s LE can be important
not only in saving but also spending in retirement. For
example, advisors and their clients may agree to assume
that the client will live for another 20 years in retirement or until the age of 85.
By using LEs, these general rules can be fine-tuned
more precisely to fit the client. For instance, many planners at a glance would agree that a 70-year-old man
should switch from an aggressive investment strategy to
a conservative one because he has a lower tolerance risk.
They can also be very useful in determining the suit-ability of an annuity product. Some people are averse to
annuities because they are not sure if they will live long
enough to see their investment pay off. An LE can remove this resistance if it shows that a particular
prospect is likely to live longer than the average person
and therefore benefit from a long-term investment
product such as annuities.
As the average LE continues to increase, more and
more people are expected to reach retirement age. For
many others, retirement will last longer than it did for
previous generations. By using LE reports, financial
planners and their clients can proceed with retirement
planning much more confidently.
Investment in Disease Prevention Could Save
America More than $16 Billion
A small strategic investment in disease prevention
could result in significant savings in U.S. health care
costs, according to a new report that was recently released by the Trust for America’s Health. In its report
Prevention for a Healthier America: Investments in
Disease Prevention Yield Significant Savings, Stronger
