Candidate Questionnaire
Jonathan A, Meyers, FSA 2000
Chief Actuary Officer
InnovaCare Health
White Plains NY
Brief description of current work:
Oversight of Risk Adjustment Operations, Actuarial Services, Analytics, and Informatics for a large multi-platformed Managed Care Organization that oversees and/or delivers healthcare services via Medicare Advantage and Medicaid health plans, MSO and owned clinic and provider groups. Technical Chairperson of MMAPA, the Medicaid and Medicare Advantage Plan Association of Puerto Rico, including being a primary spokesperson in lobbying efforts on a Federal level with CMS, HHS and Legislative efforts.
Primary Area of Practice:
Health
Other Areas of Practice
Predictive Analytics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation
Why do you want to be on the Board?
My diverse, non-traditional Actuarial career would be extremely helpful as the SOA looks to identify new areas of opportunities for the profession. I have taken the technical expertise that Actuaries are known for and applied them in various, less typical ways, including implementing operational programs to improve lives and communities, negotiating and promoting arrangements with customers, government officials and vendors, redesigning corporate and public programs and engaging and leading Executive teams on vision and strategy.
More importantly to the profession, I have used these experiences to mentor many Student and Credentialed Actuaries to follow similar paths to ensure they are not only prepared to have a broader environmental view of what they work on, but to be able to engage beyond the purely technical Actuarial expertise that we are already well known and utilized for. I believe my experiences combined with my ability to lead and mentor would support the growth of the profession in redefining what it means to be a “Traditional” Actuary beyond the increasing number of individuals and teams I have been connected to.
Professional Background
Provide a brief description of your professional background and the type of work you have performed and explain how these experiences have prepared you as an Elected Board Member and qualify you in carrying out the strategic direction of the SOA.
For the last 24 years of my 29-year career, I have been a critical advisor to C-level suite decision makers as well as being one myself for a good portion of that. I have provided key decision option analysis and recommendations that have driven successful business outcomes on project, strategic and vision levels. I have helped transform the strategic direction of employee benefits for the largest health system in New York, generating buy-in from a large board of over 100. I helped drive the strategic direction of the 9th largest Medicare Advantage plan in the country, as well as helped Puerto Rico redesign the Territory’s Managed Medicaid Program that serves one of the most underserved populations. I have successfully lobbied in DC for this same significantly underfunded population for billions of dollars of recurring, needed budget that has also served to boost the local economy. I have formulated talking points and key data and information for CEOs, CFOs, and Government Officials. And, most importantly, I have developed, built and maintained a team that successfully delivered services to both internal and external customers. Much of my experience has taken place in what might be considered “non-traditional” actuarial services. I have never seen it that way, as it has just been a matter of me taking my “Actuarial way of thinking” and applying it to the task at hand. The more leadership trusted this process, the more they sought my advice and tagged me with responsibilities outside the “norm.”
I would bring my unique perspective gained through my varied experiences to help in carrying out the Board’s goals.
Volunteer, Governance and Personal Experience
Describe how your volunteer, governance and personal experiences would strengthen your contributions to the SOA Board, the organization, and strategic plan execution. Please list your relevant volunteer experience. Please include the name of the organization, your role, and approximate dates.
Mentorship and organization – Elwood Soccer Club Intramural and Travel Teams Coach – 2002-2010; Coached multiple teams of varying degrees of interest and capabilities. Primary focus on fostering the love of the game, improving skill at the corresponding level for each child and appropriate sportsmanship and character. Attained Regional A Coaching License. Travel League Sportsmanship Awards twice.
Leadership and program development – Elwood Soccer Club Board of Directors, Head of Intramurals 2007-2010; Understood frustrations of many parents with 2 key components of the program – 1) Coaches/parents building “super teams” in the intramural program that demoralized many of the participants; 2) Consistent training/coaching; Solved these issues by implementing a standardized method to create more equal teams and club wide training with professional coaches to teach proper techniques.
Service and dedication – St Anthony’s High School Fathers’ Guild Member 2013 – present; Provide 30-40 hours/year to support various programs throughout the school to improve the student and parent experience as requested by the School Administration and Board of the Fathers’ Guild.
Governance – Served on Executive teams within Managed Care Organizations sponsoring and guiding various operational initiatives. Helped formulate company vision and strategy. HealthCare Partners MSO, CFO and Chief Actuary, 2004-2013, InnovaCare Health, Chief Actuary Officer 2015-present.
Agility/Change
What did you learn in the COVID19 pandemic that will help you, post-pandemic?
The main things that COVID either reinforced or further demonstrated is that you must be prepared for the unexpected. You must be able to take the information and data at hand and calmly assess the situation. Information will not always be perfect, especially in a newly emerging phenomenon. Not only can that NOT paralyze your decision making, it makes it even more urgent and acute to be decisive. A successful enterprise must make decisions based on the best information available and be willing to adjust as new facts and circumstances reveal themselves. I don’t say clearer as in a situation such as COVID where there really is no relevant precedent, we won’t know all the facts for years down the line. Good leadership makes difficult choices and does not just simply shut down and allow the situation to run them. They use an honest, objective review of available facts and data to help inform better decisions.
Many changes that will “stick” are things that should have happened anyway (better cleaning practices, increased telehealth, remote work, virtual learning, etc.). It helped accelerate things that organizations had been contemplating. As such, we should take that as a signal that when we believe a path is correct, we should not be waiting for an emergency to create the opportunity. We must be willing to move forward against potential resistance or short-term pain.
Being compassionate and understanding that we all don’t experience things the same way was not learned from the pandemic, but further emphasized it. It is critical to serve your community, team, organization or association. Only through implementing tools as best you can at the individual level can you serve everyone. We should design and implement programs tailored to the local reality and needs as much as possible, understanding the limitations.
Motivating/Influencing
Describe a constructive conversation you had in a group setting or one-on-one during which opinions varied and you needed to get to a consensus.
In an Executive off site meeting we were reviewing opportunities for the next year to set priorities. There were 5 new initiatives identified through a collaborative group discussion. From that, the “sponsor” of each presented and led the discussion of their initiative with the group. I presented one of the initiatives by describing what the process, outcome and benefits for each department and the organization would be. I also described the potential hurdles and listened to how others would help in overcoming and achieving the company goal if this initiative were selected. When it was other’s turn to present their initiative, we listened, discussed and asked questions. Through this process, I was able to ensure that the Executive team understood that data and advanced analytics was critical to everything we were doing as a healthcare organization. While I don’t believe anyone had it on their radar coming into the days, my initiative was designated the top priority for the next 12 months. I achieved buy in by showing each executive how their areas each leverage these capabilities today and that by making specific improvements in integration, organization and application of the robust data we collect they would gain even further knowledge and efficiency in making informed decisions and running their departments and the overall enterprise. While the other initiatives were critical to the daily operations, the executive team came to the agreement that the underpinnings of those necessitated an urgent and focused company wide emphasis on the data and analytics initiative I presented.
Diversity
Describe how your awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion has evolved throughout your life.
I have evolved from being taught and acting inclusively to being a proactive advocate. The primary way I achieve this is through action and example. This includes trying to understand each individual from their perspective and experiences and knowing that mine are not the same. In working, hiring and team building, I ensure there is opportunity for everyone to voice their views and be active participants in the decision-making process. When I was younger, I thought just acting naturally in a way that was inclusive was enough. But, as I gained power and/or influence, I came to understand it was important to use that platform to enable others regardless of background and beliefs to not only feel comfortable but feel empowered to speak, act and work to the best of their abilities. I am very proud and fortunate to have worked with providers, patients and staff in the most diverse communities in the world (i.e. Queens, NY) as well as underserved areas (i.e. Puerto Rico) successfully to bring improved access to health care and improved local economies. Understanding the different cultures as best I can in order to make others feel comfortable has been critical to my and my team’s success. It’s not enough to just be inclusive. I must make sure we are actively creating opportunities through understanding and collaboration.
International
How would your experiences strengthen your understanding of international issues?
While not International, I have spent the last 5.5+ years serving the Puerto Rico population which for all Federal Programs are treated very differently as a Territory from the States. Working alongside numerous Executives across many companies, staff, patients, providers and government officials of a community that faces many different issues and treatment than “other” domestic regions has given me a proxy for working with and understanding varying perspectives and challenges. I became the lead Technical voice for a population fighting for equal treatment in a system built and designed otherwise. In order to help provide insights and support, the first thing I did was listen, watch and interact on the ground to learn everything I could to understand the issues and gain the necessary trust to be a productive part of the process. I would use a similar approach as best applied given the circumstances as presented to understand issues from a local perspective before thinking I can help simply by providing my current perspective of the given issue(s).
Emerging
How does the SOA need to change to meet emerging challenges and opportunities?
The SOA needs to continue to proactively ensure that its leadership and volunteers have a diverse set of experiences and backgrounds, especially in non-traditional roles. The best way to identify challenges and opportunities is to actively engage those members that are already facing and/or taking advantage of them that may not be as widely known. It is great that the SOA has been extremely proactive in social diversity. I think as a profession we need to take the same initiative in expertise diversity. The SOA should make sure those that have experienced non-traditional routes and/or leadership are part of the strategic process to help accelerate the identification of new challenges and opportunities. The first step with meeting emerging issues is to identify them. As such, it is critical that a more proactive approach is taken to identifying and approaching those Actuaries that are already taking on different opportunities and challenges and make it desirable for them to play critical roles in the SOA. Part of the difficulty of doing that is helping those that are in those positions to identify that what they are doing is non-traditional. I wasn’t aware I was doing such work until I spoke to a Board Member at an SOA Meeting years ago, and they told me they were intrigued by my experiences as it wasn’t typical actuarial work. I have worked with providers and patients seeing how customers react to the data we analyze. I have implemented clinical programs based on patient experience to optimize health outcomes we have valued. Those examples, while still being grounded in the actuarial discipline, are experiences that help identify the growing areas that actuaries should not only be a part of, but be leaders in. It is critical the SOA has access to and can leverage that.