Description: Actuarial Roles in Health

Description: In this session we will discuss the impact of regulation changes that will allow members with End State Renal Disease (ESRD) to sign up for Medicare Advantage in 2021 for the first time. We will delve into the current basics of how ESRD works, the characteristics of the population that is currently on original medicare today, and a comprehensive look at what plan sponsors should be thinking about going into 2021.

Description: The big event of 2023 is the launch of multiple Humira biosimilars, which began in January with the arrival of Amgen’s Amjevita on the market. The launch of Amjevita kicks off the process of changing the specialty drug marketplace in the United States. The expectation of the full impact of this big event is very hopeful, but there is still uncertainty several months after its beginning. Humira is the highest-selling drug in the world and has been since 2013 (Figure 1)—except for when COVID-19 projects temporarily surpassed it. The world is eagerly awaiting the launch of multiple biosimilar drugs to compete with Humira and hopefully bring more competitive pricing to the benefit of payers and patients everywhere.

Description: Today's provider reimbursement landscape

Description: Healthcare risk adjustment methodologies have become increasingly complex, largely due to the belief that complexity enhances accuracy. However, a disconnect exists between how healthcare risk is assessed and how payments are adjusted. This article explores the stark difference between measuring the accuracy of a risk assessment model at a member level, and that of a risk adjustment mechanism at the health plan level. I show that a highly simplified approach that does not use diagnosis codes can have similar accuracy on risk adjusted payments to models that do. These findings suggest that accuracy is not a barrier to developing simpler risk adjustment methodologies, which can improve payment accuracy and reduce the financial incentive for coding diagnoses.

Description: Health Valuation and Stakeholder Views

Description: This is a brief report that summarizes recent changes in the prevalent medical loss ratio methodologies and also looks at some of the more recent experience of health insurers that filed medical loss ratio reports.

Description: Health is wealth, but much needed medical insurance for various needs is perceived solely for the wealthy and elusive to many. This webcast brings two highly regarded speakers in the health sphere to bust the myth that medical insurance is reserved for the wealthy and only covers known illnesses. The discussions will further dwell on products that are designed based on financial capability and customized needs while transgressing on risks and sustainability of creative products such as mental health.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Research Institute developed a new study to explore pharmacy financing. The goals of the SOA related to this research are to identify opportunities to increase transparency, encourage competition, align stakeholder incentives and mitigate increases in total cost of care. The research uses a value-based methodology.

Description: This article is an update on the No Surprises Act, which is a U.S. Act aimed to reduce the risk that a person unexpectedly receives out of network charges for their health care visits. This is Part 2; Part 1 was featured in Health Watch's Sept 2024 issue.