2024 SOA Health Meeting in Review
By Anders O.F. Hendrickson
Health Watch, September 2024
This summer the annual Society of Actuaries Health Meeting was held on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The harbor also holds such attractions as the National Aquarium, the USS Constellation and the restaurants of Little Italy, but these tourist destinations faced stiff competition from the actuarial excitement happening in the Marriott next door.
The Health Meeting offers the classic conference challenge—there are so many fascinating sessions available that it’s impossible to attend all the ones you want. I found the conference mobile app provided an excellent solution: not only could I preview the slides for each of the concurrent sessions to decide which one to attend, but afterward I could read the slides for the sessions I missed and even watch full recordings of them.
The sessions themselves covered a wide variety of health topics. One panel held an interactive, Seinfeld-themed “airing of grievances” regarding the Medicare Advantage star ratings system. Although the session title sounded negative, panelists and audience members mostly offered positive suggestions for improving the system, such as reducing the lag time from data measurement to compensation and creating a continuous scale (rather than the quantized star count with a high revenue “cliff” between 3.5 and 4.0 stars), so that plan sponsors will have more incentive to continue improvement.
Sessions in the pharmacy space discussed upcoming impacts of GLP-1 drugs, gene therapies, regulatory changes, and the challenges of value-based pricing models, such as guarantees on very high-cost therapies. Other sessions had topics that could have impacts on our own lives. One talk reviewed the concept of “blue zones”—communities known for longevity—and reframed the question in terms of defining “successful aging” and taking steps to achieve it.
One theme running through many sessions, beginning with the plenary address, was the market disruption and potential positive impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on medical care. One exciting possibility is the use of AI to improve regular screenings by determining a patient’s prior likelihood of a disease based on more factors than just age and sex. Targeting screenings to patients with higher prior likelihoods could reduce both costs and false positives.
At the most engaging talk I attended, entitled “No Idea Too Big,” four actuaries outlined what changes they would make to health care in the United States if given plenary power. The proposals were all far more detailed and nuanced than can be summarized here: one proposed a version of Medicare-for-most, another emphasized increasing competition and removing regulatory barriers to innovation, and a third advocated setting a mandatory fee schedule for all providers. The winner (by a vote of session attendees) was a proposal to allow providers to compete on publicly posted prices (but prohibiting them from charging different payers different prices) and disentangle the current web of subsidies, insurance programs, and unfunded mandates that favors political connections over efficient care.
One of the most important parts of the meeting is the opportunity it offers for networking. At the first-time attendee reception and during meals, I met actuaries from across the country, representing a variety of insurance companies and consulting firms, with a wide range of personal interests and career histories. Some had worked as wedding planners, while others had bicycled from Maine to Miami; others maintain part-time writing careers on the side. Breaks between sessions were a full thirty minutes long, giving ample opportunities to meet new people, reconnect with old friends and acquaintances, and continue discussions sparked by the sessions. This was my first Health Meeting, and I am already looking forward to next year’s meeting in Dallas.
Anders O.F. Hendrickson, FSA, CERA, MAAA, Ph.D., is a health actuary for Milliman. Anders can be reached at anders.hendrickson@milliman.com