Description: Almost half of recent FDA approvals have been for orphan drugs. This trend is expected to continue in 2023. Orphan drugs are priced more than 30 times higher than non-orphan drugs, therefore their cost burden in aggregate has the potential to overwhelm the budgets of payers, especially that of smaller health plans. Hear how the cost impact analysis for smaller health plans require different considerations than for a larger health plan when modeling the impact of rare diseases.

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on all aspects of daily life and its impact extends to how disability incidence may play out in the future. Product profitability will be shaped by how morbidity patterns, interest rate levels and other key drivers will play out into the future. In this session, our panel will discuss COVID’s impact on IDI morbidity experience as observed over the past 18 months, offer comparisons and insights in light of other insurance lines of business, and share emerging information on the on-going effects of Long COVID. Highlights will also include how regional differences and implications for insurers as the industry moves further into the COVID vaccine era.