Annual Meeting Health & Welfare Sessions

This interactive session covers professional/ethical case studies (sometimes real life ones) where consultants are faced with challenging client situations. Discussions and polling allow the audience the opportunity to decide the best course of action to take and why. Any applicable ASOPs will be covered as well.

Inflation has been its highest in the last 40 years and the world is recovering from a pandemic that it hasn’t seen in a century. Healthcare cost trends over the next few years will be influenced by these uncertain conditions. What can we learn from recent experience and what should be considered in your selection of short-term cost trends?

Beginning July 1, 2022, most group health plans and issues of group or individual health insurance will begin posting pricing information for covered items and services. A subset of this is the No Surprises Act that became effective on January 1, 2022, and provides patients financial protections against surprise medical bills. This session will cover the impact these factors have on employers and their employees from cost and other perspectives.

Speakers highlight current topics in Medicare Advantage and Part D using an interactive format including presentations, polling, and audience participation. Topics may include Medicare Advantage, Part D, and employer sponsored Medicare plans.

The ACA insurance market continues to see significant, positive change. Speakers at this session provide updates on the market's current state as well as projections for its future evolution. Consultant and carrier perspectives will link these market developments to employer opportunities to deliver more value to plan participants.

Imagine you're an employer entering the US healthcare system for the first time. How would you choose what health plan to offer? how would you fund it? Would the old method be the way? This session takes you through a new alternative - the Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA). This approach to meeting your financial requirements without the complications of managing a group health plan. Is it for you? Join us and find out why you should consider a different path forward.

Consultant considerations when evaluating value-based care arrangements. Topics include an overview of the value-based care market; considerations for evaluating these arrangements; practical evaluation examples; discussion around what's coming in value-based care, and a panel discussion with your questions and answers.

Haven't had time to read all of the Academy's papers on health equity? Health equity is such an important issue that the Academy has elevated Health Equity to a permanent Committee on par with Medicare, Medicaid and Employee Benefits. Catch up with the Committee on the learnings so far and where health equity is heading from an actuarial perspective.

Providing a pharmacy update with emerging trends in benefit management, pharmacogenomics, and other genetics-related work.

Learn about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care claims patterns, provider approaches and future cost projections. Understand the implications of continued COVID infections, vaccines, and the eventual shift to an endemic disease. Consider impacts on long COVID on experience.

If your client has a Big Four auditor, gone is the day when the annoying first year accountant asked irrelevant questions. Anticipating and knowing what the auditor's actuarial specialist is looking for can go a long way toward a smoother completion to year-end financial reporting.

Health care has been rendered via virtual channels since the emergence of telephone and radio technology. Although its usage since then has varied across different eras and settings, recent forces such as the COVID pandemic, recognition of generational preference patterns, and care equity initiatives have accelerated the use of virtual care. Panelists dissect several aspects of the value proposition for virtual care, exploring exciting topics such as its role in various care scenarios, integration with in-person treatment, emerging frameworks, and the outlook of what’s next in virtual care.

A discussion of observed large employer trends in 2022 and beyond. The topics will touch on impacts of COVID-19 on benefits such as lasting changes to virtual care and behavior health. Additionally we'll walk through what can be done to help clients with DE&I initiatives in the benefits space.

Employers and other healthcare organizations increasingly look for actuaries to provide them with quantitative information of value to drive decision making. Our experts offer their perspectives on the demand for advanced analytics in the rapidly approaching value-based future.

The Society of Actuaries published research papers on Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) earlier this year. Authors of those papers highlight their key findings. In addition, the researchers cover the relevance of SDOH to actuaries and summarize the publicly available data sources that can be used in actuarial models.