Description: A comprehensive primer on long-term care wellness programs, their design, implementation, challenges, metrics for success, and emerging industry practices.

Description: The cost of prescription drugs is top of mind for consumers, payers and policymakers. Despite legislative efforts, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the problem remains. More than 30% of all Americans say they have not taken prescription drugs as prescribed in the last 12 months because of the expense. The purpose of this paper is to discuss an alternative to policy solutions: reimagining pharmacy financing in the commercial space using a value-based reimbursement methodology that increases transparency, encourages competition, aligns stakeholder incentives and mitigates total cost of care (TCOC) increases. This paper will demonstrate that it is possible to implement such a methodology under the current infrastructure, but one can identify limitations.

Description: There are growing concerns that the Asian bird flu virus will evolve into a form that can be transmitted from human to human, thus unleashing a new global flu pandemic. This article uses the Spanish flu epidemic and the German life insurance portfolio to analyze the additional claims expenditure due to a pandemic.

Description: The coming wave of biosimilars could dramatically affect prescription drug costs and benefit strategies over the next several years. The launch of many Humira biosimilars in 2023 is the Big Event that will largely determine the impact of the biosimilar wave. Payers have many decisions to make about coverage and formulary tiers. What factors will drive payer decision-making?

Description: The coming wave of biosimilars could have a major impact on prescription drug spend in coming years. The big event of Humira biosimilar launches in 2023 will be significant in determining that ultimate impact. Payers are making coverage decisions. The more biosimilars are utilized, the greater the potential savings. How will biosimilar adoption be maximized?

Description: A brief review of the 2024 SOA Health Meeting in Baltimore

Description: Research report measuring the annual frequency of medical errors in the United States and the total measurable cost to the United States economy of these errors.

Description: Employers who purchase disability insurance are increasingly interested in obtaining assistance with broader absence management services. At the same time, paid family leave is gaining in popularity both as a government-mandated benefit and in the context of private insurance plans. The speakers in this session review recent developments in the full spectrum of leave programs, including plan design, pricing and administration.

Description: Predictive Analytics and Epigenetics are two of the most impactful driving forces for the future of healthcare, precision medicine, and insurance. Learn why this is true, how if will change the way our industry operates, and how you can stay viable and contribute to the betterment of humanity while also protecting the actuarial profession from obsolescence. Learn how personalized medicine keying off genetic testing is saving life insurers big dollars. The only limit seems to be testing access for their insureds.

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.