Description: MACRA not only impact providers, it will impact the entire healthcare market. MACRA published studies and commentary to date have primarily focused on providers, with the majority of the information addressing the impacts to clinicians. However, our investigation indicates MACRA has far reaching impacts to payers as well as providers. MACRA is impacting each geographic market and line of business in a unique way, and health payers will have multiple strategic decisions to consider given the changing market dynamics.

Description: Read the February 2020 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: Read the October 2019 issues of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities. This is the second digital-only issue of the newsletter.

Description: An introduction to the ACA@10 Strategic Initiative, which examines the impact of the Affordable Care Act 10 years after its passage.

Description: Some seniors may find it challenging to manage frequent doctor visits. Telemedicine can significantly fill in some of these gaps by enabling “virtual” doctor visits. Telemedicine improves access to medical care, reduces the need for transportation, reduces wait times, protects the health of individuals who won’t be exposed to germs of others in a waiting room, and improves access to care from a healthcare professional who may be far away from the patient and more. Implications for telemedicine in charged amounts (in various insurances) are being worked out and continue to evolve.

Description: Milliman surveyed carriers about their recent LTC rate increase experiences. A total of 20 companies participated in the survey, representing 65 percent of LTC premium in the United States. This article highlights some of the findings from this survey, along with additional considerations when pursuing LTC rate increases.

Description: Retirement planning generally includes a focus on decisions needed at time of retirement, but it often fails to focus on changes during retirement and additional decisions needed as people age. The 2021 SOA Risk Survey and other SOA research documents the lack of focus on future change. It is common for people to lose cognitive ability and generally to become less able to make decisions, manage their finances, their medical care and their lives at high ages.This panel focuses on communication and decision issues. The SOA has recently issued a decision guide on High Age Decisions. The brief identifies four domains for high age decisions: ·Health, health care and staying healthy ·Managing finances ·Housing and transportation ·Support networks The panel will include a discussion of communications and how we change, problems of physical, hearing, sight or cognitive decline and the challenges created and the four domains in the SOA Decision Brief.

Description: Critical factors to consider as we age include where we live, who we interact with, how we get the help and support we need when we need it, and how our health care is organized and delivered. Underlying this is how we finance the cost of specialized housing, care and support. Some communities are age-friendly where we can obtain supportive services, others are not. Some people choose to live in senior housing which integrates support services, others choose to live in the community among people of all ages. Some health care systems are well designed to meet the needs of older people, others are not. The cost of living for older adults, considering all of these factors, varies by community. Explore more about the perspective of older adults, how communities have structured to meet their needs, and how society as a whole is becoming aware of and addressing a growing aging population.

Description: As the population and workforce age, it is important to rethink how and when we retire. This article provides a big picture overview of issues related to opening up more options for exit from the labor force and gradual retirement. It reviews developments in the last few years that are important including the growth of gig employment, more remote work, more technology, workforce shortages, and changes in employee benefits that previously were a barrier to gradual retirement. It calls for more focus on adaption to the aging society. Several publications are cited and it includes a reference list.

Description: About a year ago we published our whitepaper “Insurance Innovation Opportunities Beyond COVID-19”. In the paperwe made some predictions on what innovation opportunities the pandemic would bring to the insurance space. It ishard to believe, but we’ve already had a year of living with the pandemic. In recognition of how much time haspassed, we want to look back at a few of our customer realities from last spring set against the innovations thathave been delivered in the market since.