Health

The Health Practice Council’s Medicare Committee submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the draft part one guidance for the Maximum Monthly Cap on Cost-Sharing Payments Program.

Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello and Health Equity Committee member Rebecca Sheppard gave an overview of the committee’s work on equity considerations related to health plan pricing to AHIP’s Health Equity Workgroup.

The Health Practice Council’s Individual and Small Group Markets Committee, Risk Sharing Subcommittee, and Active Benefits Committee submitted a comment letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of the Treasury on the Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance; Independent, Noncoordinated Excepted Benefits Coverage; Level-Funded Plan Arrangements; and Tax Treatment of Certain Accident and Health Insurance notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).

A new issue brief released by the Health Equity Committee provides an overview of issues related to designing health benefits to improve health equity. These issues were discussed in the first of a series of workshops with stakeholders and decision-makers focusing on changing cost-sharing features, such as through value-based insurance design (VBID), as well as adding benefits to address health-related social needs.

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee released its annual issue brief laying out the factors underlying premium rate setting and highlighting the major components driving premium changes in the individual and small group markets for 2024.

Academy Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello presented on “Considerations for Calculating Cost-Sharing Reduction Load Factors” at the Society of Actuaries’ virtual health meeting.

The Health Solvency Subcommittee’s Health Underwriting Risk Factors Analysis Work Group sent a letter updating the NAIC’s Health Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group (HRBC) on progress on the NAIC’s request to comprehensively review the H2—Underwriting Risk Component and the Managed Care Credit Calculation included in the HRBC formula.

The Health Practice Council’s Medicaid Committee submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Managed Care Access, Finance, and Quality (Managed Care NPRM).

Academy Health Equity Committee Vice Chairperson Stacey Lampkin presented to the Southeastern Actuaries Conference (SEAC) on the committee’s ongoing work on health equity, including the upcoming 2023 workshops and symposium focusing on the intersection of benefit design and health equity.

The Committee on Property Liability and Financial Reporting (COPLFR) and the Health Practice Council’s Committee on Financial Reporting and Solvency submitted a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Blanks Working Group on proposed exposure to add instructions for the appointed actuary and qualified actuary contacts to the Jurat electronic only section in order to address any actuarial questions.

The Active Benefits Committee released an issue brief focusing on the role of actuaries in employee benefits for health policy development.

The Medicare Committee released an issue brief focusing on the near and long-term financing challenges facing the Medicare program based on the 2023 Medicare Trustees Report.

The Long-term Care Reform Subcommittee sent a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Long-Term Care Actuarial (B) Working Group featuring an Academy issue brief, Long-Term Care Insurance: Considerations for Treatment of Past Losses in Rate Increase Requests (October 2018), in response to a working group concern about the lack of a consistent definition of “past losses” in the context of recoupment.

The Life Practice Council, Health Practice Council, and Casualty Practice Council submitted a joint comment letter to the Colorado Division of Insurance on its recent exposure of a draft regulation on Governance and Risk Management Framework Requirements for Life Insurance Carriers’ Use of External Consumer Data and Information Sources, Algorithms, and Predictive Models: the first exposed implementation regulation for Colorado Revised Statute (C.R.S.) § 10-3-1104.9, signed into law on July 6, 2021.

The Health Practice Council’s Financial Reporting and Solvency Committee sent a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Long-Term Care Actuarial (B) Working Group inquiring if the Working Group might issue an accounting interpretation for the interaction between Actuarial Guideline LI (AG 51) and Appendix A-010.