Description: This document is a Request for Proposals (RFP) outlining a proposal request on the impact of the U.S. drug abuse epidemic on mortality, focusing on opioids. It provides details on the background, purpose, research objectives, proposal requirements, selection process, and conditions for submitting a proposal.

Description: Countries developing universal health care via an insurance vehicle face a variety of challenges. Deciding which benefits to include, where to proactively manage health, and how to reimburse network providers are just a sampling of the issues governments concurrently manage. Optimal choices are data-driven responses. For example, high rates of cervical cancer or increasing narcotics prescriptions are trends that can be managed through product changes, modified network payment structures, or even employer based outreach. This kind of information is typically gleaned from established health insurance claims data. However, in emerging health insurance markets, this level of granular claims data is largely missing. It is difficult to manage medical trend when the root causes are unclear. This article explores a pilot medical underwriting project in Jordan.

Description: State Medicaid agencies have been implementing value-based payment (VBP) models for the last decade and are increasingly exploring advanced population-based payment (PBP) models that increase flexibility, predictability, and accountability for participating provider organizations. PBP models show promise in advancing Medicaid priorities, but are still in the early stages of development, and model design and implementation challenges remain. This article from the Center for Health Care Strategies explores the fundamentals of VBP and how PBP - a particular type of payment model - can help Medicaid agencies achieve goals related to care transformation and quality improvement, revenue stability, and controlling cost of care.

Description: Explore the post-pandemic COVID-19 workforce and its characteristics in this webcast. Due to the Great Resignation, employers were and continuously are seeking ways to attract and retain talent beyond higher wages.

Description: The Living to 100 monograph is composed of the papers, essays, panel discussions, teaching and keynote sessions presented at the symposium.

Description: This session is designed to inform you about the current state of mental health and mental health care in the United States, as well as future trajectories. By exploring topics such as plan design, provider network, provider reimbursement, and other relevant channels, this session aims to enlighten everyone on existing challenges and the strategies being employed to tackle them. Notably, this will include and highlight proposed changes to the mental health parity. Additionally, attendees will hear from a mental health provider/academic on these topics to gain a non-actuarial perspective.

Description: The health insurance industry has historically used several factors to develop premium rates. Many of these, e.g. gender rating, have been largely eliminated from health insurance rating practices by regulations as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) because they were determined as inequitable. However, several other factors still remain as differentiators in premium rates charged to individuals and groups. In conjunction with the SOA, researchers studied whether there could be ‘ghost’ rating factors, like race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, that are inherently included in some of these remaining allowable factors. Review results and opportunities for future research. By attending this session, you will be challenged to think about traditional rating factors in a different way. Rather than focusing on whether certain factors are sound based on the underlying claims cost, this session will focus on whether or not these factors are impacting certain socioeconomic or racial/ethnic groups disparately.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (“SOA”) Research Institute is the research arm of the SOA, providing objective, data-driven research that brings together tried and true practices and future-focused approaches to address societal challenges and business needs. The Institute provides trusted knowledge, extensive experience and new technologies to help effectively identify, predict and manage risks.

Description: Subtitle: My real-life connection to (almost) every supplemental product Data is king, but maybe it should be dethroned once in a while so we can better understand the "why" behind the data.

Description: How to effectively retain top talent is a challenge that all employers face and an area in which employee benefits have been playing an increasingly important role. Traditionally, the market has been very competitive, with generic products mainly focused on outpatient and inpatient medical reimbursement, Term Life cover and accidental benefits. For large multinationals, employee benefits are often tailor-made solutions arranged via international brokers whereas small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more likely to utilize standard packages offered by insurance companies via agents. This article explores the evolution of employee benefits in Asia.