Description: One of the Health Section's key focuses in 2019 is Initiative 18/11. Last year the SOA joined forces with the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) to answer the nagging question: “What can we do about the cost of healthcare?” A steering group has been formed to lead a research project as to what managed care companies can do to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. The project [called Managed Care 3.0 in the 18/11 paper] will examine historical models that have worked as well as investigate the impact that new technologies and care models may have on cost and quality, with the goal of better understanding the current environment and identify­ing potential risks and opportunities.

Description: Understand the role of food based interventions in health care. Learn the difference between produce prescription and medically tailored meals. Review new policies that will affect Medicare and Medicaid populations. Evaluate the possibility of health cost savings due to these interventions.

Description: Gene therapy is a quickly evolving field and will continue to grow as a risk concern for many health plans, stop loss insurers and reinsurers. Currently, there are only two approved gene therapies in the U.S., but that number is expected to escalate starting in the fall of 2022. Revisit the experience plans have had with the first two gene therapies, discuss plan design and network considerations in light of gene therapy, and discuss the actual composition of the near-term pipeline along with a range of modeled financial impacts and considerations for payers.

Description: The Inflation Reduction Act represents the largest change to the Medicare Part D program since its inception in 2006. With a complete redesign of the Part D program coming in 2025 (the next bid cycle), there are health plan, operational and analytical challenges that lie ahead. In this session, you will: Hear highlights on some of the key changes occurring in 2025 Learn about key considerations for health plans and other stakeholders in the Medicare and commercial markets Discover potential winning strategies and potential analyses that could inform those strategies

Description: Explore the value and cost of prescription drugs, how they should be defined and measured and the effects various stakeholders in the pharmacy ecosystem can have on these factors in the latest webcast. You'll investigate the impact of coverage, formulary and rebate negotiations and related benefit design. Find out how actuaries can answer questions related to the prescription drug industry, in addition to improving the access, quality and affordability of prescription drugs in the United States. Join us for this webcast and come learn about value-based contract design, negotiations, implementation and administration for prescription drugs.

Description: The U.S. health care system continues to have its problems. It costs too much and even with public policy developments we are not meeting the desired objectives. What's next? What else can we do? Discuss some of the emerging ideas that are being pursued and the likelihood of their success at solving our collective problem.

Description: Explore the findings from the research paper recently released by Milliman and the SOA, highlighting the growing need for support of informal/family caregivers. We will discuss both quantitative and qualitative data that illustrates not only the cost and burgeoning need, but the mental/emotional stressors that come along with this work.

Description: Help consumers understand their rights in health care and understand how technology is embedded into the health care industry. On top of that, you will also hear about topics related to professionalism. During this webcast, you will learn about: ▪ An overview of the health insurance market ▪ Health care provider billing and contracting ▪ Recent trends with insurers and health care providers ▪ Identify areas of excessive billing and fraud ▪ The impacts of technology on billing practices ▪ An understanding pharmacy benefits, including discounts and rebates

Description: Develop a better understanding of specialty drug trends and their increasing healthcare costs for more than the past decade by attending this webcast. With the introduction of price competition, you will see changes in the market for biosimilar products and patent-protected drugs. For example, the drug Humira will be gaining 10 biosimilar competitors in 2023. Alone, Humira can represent over 20% of total pharmacy spend for health plans. Join us and discover how price competition is a turning point for the pharmaceutical industry and will define its direction for the next decade.

Description: For decades the negotiated prices between health care providers, insurance carriers, and networks have been tightly-guarded trade secrets. That's quickly changing. Health care price transparency is now bipartisan-supported law. Gag clauses have been banned. Starting in January 2021 hospitals were subject to new rules requiring disclosure of the payment rates they receive from health plans to both consumers and the general public. So far, compliance has been mixed. Similar rules for payers become effective later in 2022 and 2023 for health plans and consumers. While entrenched interests are doing their best to stall transparency, unless the laws change, transparency is going to happen and will rock the commercial health insurance market, providing the long awaited opportunity for meaningful health care cost reductions. Learn more about price transparency laws and regulations, examine rocky implementation to-date, and discuss the role of self-insured employers in leading the market changes that will emerge from price transparency. By attending this session, you will be able to: - Name the applicable price transparency laws and rules. - See transparency as more than a list of new compliance requirements and consumer tools. - Anticipate that the downstream impacts of transparency on commercial health insurance will be profound. - Appreciate the increased power of self-insured employers.