Description: Knowing Dan and seeing him live his life in the community makes me a better Medicaid actuary. My experience as a Medicaid actuary makes me a better brother and guardian to Dan. I want to share our story and offer you our unique perspective on the Medicaid LTSS system through real-life examples. In this session, attendees can expect to learn about the following questions:

Description: How does where you live impact your health? The following research considers this question through the lens of social determinants of health (SDOH), which are factors relating to where you live or work that may impact your health. In the United States, there are geographical differences in SDOH which contribute to wide disparities in health status and outcomes. In particular, individuals who are negatively affected by SDOH may have an increased burden of disease, leading to a relatively high total cost of care and worse quality of life.

Description: This study of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality builds on a previous report in which we identified a large and growing gradient in life expectancy between 1982 and 2019 across U.S. counties classified into 10 socioeconomically homogeneous categories. In this report, we seek to identify the particular causes of death contributing to the growing disadvantage in mortality between populations in the least and most affluent deciles as previously defined.

Description: On September 14, 2022, The Wall Street Journal hosted its ‘Future of Health’ event, which was a virtual event featuring three sessions on some emerging cutting-edge topics that could impact the future healthcare environment as well as health care actuaries. This report summarizes the event.

Description: The session is based on an article of the same name featured in the January, 2023 issue of Health Watch. It gives a step-by-step method of how to apply the average paid PMPM method to calculate IBNR with zero run-out, as opposed to current methods, which generally require a three-month run-out period. Methods for obtaining confidence intervals for the IBNR estimates will also be discussed.

Description: Explore the role of inflation across health products, including medical plans, disability, and long-term care. Explore various drivers of cost trends, wage increase, and cost of care. Understand their role in the pricing and valuation of a product and how to manage the risk.

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic initially caused some health care services to shift away from in-person transactions to a digital form, including telehealth, e-mails, remote patient monitoring and other forms of communication. If sustained, numerous effects and counter-effects both in the cost and quality of care as well as long-term outcomes for patient health may emerge.

Description: This report discusses cancer mortality at older ages, including insights on cancer risk, trends, treatment, and impacts, as well as expert panel discussions. It addresses factors influencing cancer risk, advancements in treatment, and the impact of COVID-19 on cancer trends.

Description: This report is targeted to actuaries that are interested in identifying the adverse human health outcomes resulting from anthropogenic climate change. This is accomplished by providing a detailed framework to evaluate the impact of extreme heat on human health and identify the role that anthropogenic climate change has on extreme heat events. Although this document is designed around extreme heat, the concepts can be expanded to other climate-related events. As the primary focus of actuarial research is to promote human health and minimize the preventable economic burden, this document also provides recommendations to mitigate against excess heat related illness (HRI) due to extreme heat.

Description: A divisive confrontation over health care pricing is almost inevitable over the next few years. What will ultimately happen is a political decision, not an actuarial one—but it will have major consequences for the trend in health care costs and the divergence between public and private insurance premiums.