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: The presenters will provide insights into fraud and abuse risk in the health insurance industry, including an examination of traditional and predictive modeling techniques for both prevention and detection. Emphasis will be placed on current and emerging risks. Canadian examples and perspectives will be offered, but the applications for attendees to use in practice are non-nation specific.

Description: Changes introduced by various Medicare Alternative Payment Models and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) have accelerated an existing market trend of shifting some of what has traditionally been considered “insurance risk” to providers. The Provider Risk Sharing Boot Camp will give attendees deeper insights into methods, current thinking, and alternative solutions that actuaries can use to help providers understand and manage the financial and actuarial risks that they are taking, many for the first time.

Description: Methods and assumptions used in the valuation of savings by external care vendors