Prescription Drug Use in an Individual Exchange Population

The Society of Actuaries is pleased to make available research examining the pharmaceutical use by enrollees in individual ACA plans in Kansas during the calendar year 2014.  In order to better understand how enrollment timing was related to relative costs, the population was divided into three categories based on enrollment date. The paper looks at the relative use of pharmaceuticals for three categories of enrollees:

• Continuing.  Consists of enrollees who were effective as of January 1, 2014 and who were identifiable in the prior year (2013) as members of an individual plan; 
• First Quarter.  Consists of  enrollees who had an effective date between January 1 and March 31, 2014 and who were not identifiable in the prior year; and 
• Later Enrollees.  Consists of enrollees who had an effective date of April 1, 2014 and later.

Report

Questions

The material was authored by Rebecca Owen, FSA, MAAA, SOA Health Research Actuary. If you have comments or questions, please email  rowen@soa.org.   

Thank You

The SOA would like to thank Rene Acker of Outcome Strategies for her review and construction of drug lists and therapy groupings, and the many reviewers who were generous with their time and thoughtful with their suggestions.