Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello and Health Equity Committee members Ugo Okpewho and Sara Teppema gave an overview of the committee’s work on equity considerations related to provider contracting and network development to AHIP’s Health Equity Workgroup.

A new issue brief released by the Health Equity Committee provides an overview of how potential benefit changes are evaluated and how those evaluations could facilitate the incorporation of equity-enhancing benefit design features. These issues were discussed in the second 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.

Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello gave an overview of the Health Equity Committee’s work on equity considerations related to benefit design to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ (CBPP) Marketplace Affordability Project.

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.

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. In particular, the brief outlines some of the decision-making process with respect to adding benefits and the challenges of incorporating more equity-improving elements into health insurance plan designs.

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

Health Equity Committee (HEC) Chairperson Annette James presented at the 2023 Society of Actuaries Health Meeting in Seattle on “Health Equity: What it Means for Actuaries.” Her presentation gave an overview of health equity definitions, its intersection with actuarial work, and highlighted the HEC’s ongoing work, 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 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.