Description: In April 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a revised definition of primarily health related (PHR) benefits as applicable to Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations.

Description: In the evolving realm of healthcare actuarial practice, value-based contracts are reshaping the landscape. This article explores the pivotal role of AI-enhanced Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in empowering actuaries to navigate this dynamic sector. Despite challenges in data standardization, AI-enhanced EMRs offer a solution by extracting and standardizing diverse medical records. The article delineates how AI-EMR integration benefits actuaries and provider organizations, enabling more accurate forecasting, earlier shared savings prepayments, and real-time quality metric aggregation. Moreover, it discusses how this fusion addresses historical data limitations, can help project catastrophic claims, and can help identify risk score capture opportunities. Ultimately, it indicates the transformative potential of AI-EMR synergy, positioning actuaries at the forefront of healthcare analytics with unprecedented precision and insight.

Description: This is Part 2 of 2 on changes affecting Medigap insurers. It focuses on marketing and regulatory differences between Medigap and Medicare Advantage that affect the competitiveness of Medigap plans.

Description: 2014 marked a new beginning for small group(SG) health insurance market ushered in with adjusted community rated products priced from a single risk pool. It was anticipated that the mandated pooling of the risk would result in higher rates, especially for healthier groups. It is the aim of this article to show whether that view bears out in the actual market rates and if it is higher, then by how much. The article provides a point in time(1st quarter 2025) comparison of premium rates under two segments of the small group market, namely Qualified Health Plans(QHP) available under the small group ACA market versus self-insured Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements(MEWA) plans.

Description: This article summarizes the winners of the Product & Process Innovative Marketing Awards that were presented at the February 2005 Professional Insurance Marketing Association PIMA annual meeting in Tucson.

Description: Interview with Cori Uccello, senior health fellow for the American Academy of Actuaries.

Description: Update on Health Section research projects and topics, including health care reform, complexity science, and strategic planning.

Description: When designing and pricing a healthcare product, it is not only important to know how to model frequency and severity, but it is essential to understand human behavior. Of course, the issue of anti-selection in medical insurance is well known as individuals know more about their health and prior expenditures than an insurer does. This type of behavior is certainly rational, and to be expected.

Description: Inspired by other financial savings products available to Canadians, this article describes a potential solution for financing future health expenses with the creation of a Registered Health Savings Account (RHSA). This solution has been thought on the basis of four premises : 1- Individual Accountability for Health Expenses; 2- Early Savings Leads to More Accumulation; 3-PreferredTax Treatment for Personal Health Savings; 4- Complementing current public and private health systems; Main elements of the RHSA are described (Contributions, Accumulation, Utilization of account, Management by financial institutions).RHSA'S expected balances and some other results under three scenarios (a person in good health, one in poor health, and one with unexpected death at age 45) are summarized in a table. Health expenses deducted yearly from RHSA's balance were estimated using total, per capita, provincial government health expenditures by age-band for Canada, in 2020, from the Canadian Institute of Heath Information’s (CIHI), which account for 71.8% of total expenditures, that is public + private. Thus 28.2% of total expenditures were used for private health expenditures, then forecasted to 2024 and projected using a 4% annual trend. Some objections to the solution explored were anticipated as well as some refutations to these objections.

Description: What are Biosimilar drugs? Are they the same as generic drugs? What potential impact might Biosimilars have in the United States prescription drug landscape and it’s economics? This article explores those questions as well as exclusivity and interchangeability.