2021 SOA Health Meeting Recap

By Craig Kalman

Health Watch, August 2021

On June 14–16, more than 1,200 actuaries and other professionals attended the virtual Society of Actuaries (SOA) Health Meeting. Many people worked behind the scenes to ensure that this meeting could take place; they included my co-chairs, Deana Bell and Shereen Sayre; countless SOA staff members; and last, but not least, everyone who presented and moderated sessions.

In addition to the keynote sessions, the Health Section “breakfast” and 44 concurrent session offerings, we were able to offer five on-demand sessions and additional days during June on three specialized topics. I am pleased to announce that many of these had around 150 to 200 viewers. Our keynote speakers helped us to think from broader perspectives: Laura Adams presented on health care technology sharing, the need to be patient-centric, and how to balance sharing information with privacy concerns. Rachel Cossar gave a number of insights on effective communication, including how to think differently about our virtual presence. At the end of the first day, a general networking session was offered, with a diversity networking session after the second day. Personally, I found these to be an interesting balance to the other meetings we had during the day. After all, if we had met in person, we’d have had a chance to network throughout the three days.

COVID has impacted the meeting in a number of ways, from meeting virtually, to limiting the number of sessions offered, to the topics covered in the sessions. We have been hit by COVID-19 both in the way we work and in what we do in our work. I recently attended a meeting where participants were asked to think about the impact of COVID in two dimensions: one being pre-COVID versus during COVID, and the other being the good vs the bad. The outcome was to focus on the good from both when we move into the post-COVID “new normal.” Our ability to link via technology despite COVID is a positive. I’m looking forward to us all being able to see each other in person again, hopefully for the 2022 Health Meeting.

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Craig Kalman, FSA, MAAA, FHFMA, is the director of actuarial and analytic services at GEHA. He can be reached at craig@kalman.net.