American Academy of Actuaries Applies Actuarial Expertise and Perspective to Health Equity
WASHINGTON—The American Academy of Actuaries is providing an actuarial perspective and actuarial expertise on health equity issues via its new Health Equity Work Group, which introduced its efforts to reduce health disparities and improve health equity with today’s release of a discussion brief, Health Equity from an Actuarial Perspective: Questions to Explore.
“There’s a far-ranging national conversation about health equity going on, and the Academy’s Health Equity Work Group is a vehicle for bringing the significant expertise and experience that health actuaries have to that conversation,” said Annette James, chairperson of the work group. “This foundational document on health equity issues begins by offering questions and topics for further exploration to help identify ways in which health benefit programs might affect health equity.”
The discussion brief frames the questions the Health Equity Work Group is exploring in the following four areas: health insurance benefit design; provider contracting and network development; premium pricing; and managing population health.
The ongoing work of the Health Equity Work Group, part of the Academy’s Health Practice Council, will include examining health actuarial practices and methods to assess the extent to which they may affect health disparities and recommend changes when appropriate, educating actuaries and other stakeholders on health equity issues, and applying an equity lens to the Academy’s health policy work.
Learn more about the Academy’s work on health equity issues and other public policy issues here.
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The American Academy of Actuaries is a 19,500-member professional association whose mission is to serve the public and the U.S. actuarial profession. For more than 50 years, the Academy has assisted public policymakers on all levels by providing leadership, objective expertise, and actuarial advice on risk and financial security issues. The Academy also sets qualification, practice, and professionalism standards for actuaries in the United States.
