SOA Health Section and Health Meeting

Health Section Update + 2019 Health Meeting

April/May 2019

Health Section Update

In the past 12 months, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Health Section has achieved incredible things. The highlight was launching Initiative 18|11, a joint initiative with the Kaiser Family Foundation, where industry leaders have come together to address some of the issues facing rising health care costs in the United States. Health care costs are now 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States, versus 11 percent in the rest of the developed world—hence the name 18|11. In 2018, a summit was held at the Kaiser facilities in Washington, D.C. While this was a great day of respectful and challenging discussion, the real impact comes from taking action on our learnings and keeping the conversations going. As you can imagine, the continuation of Initiative 18|11 will be a large focus for the SOA Health Section into 2019.

Another objective of the Health Section for 2019 is to evolve how we meet the needs of our members. We are focused on leveraging social media—primarily LinkedIn—to share industry news in a timely manner and to build community. This page is open to both Health Section members and nonmembers, so please join the conversation.

In addition to advancing Initiative 18|11 and our LinkedIn page, the Health Section will continue to provide continuing education through high-quality webcasts, podcasts, meeting sessions and our flagship newsletter, Health Watch, which is now available in a new digital format.

The Health Section is well positioned to have another amazing year, and I hope you will join us!

Karen Shelton, FSA, MAAA is a senior director of actuarial services within National Accounts at UnitedHealthcare. She is also the council chair of the SOA Health Section.

Speaking of Health

Join the SOA in in Phoenix, June 24–26, for the 2019 Health Meeting—the SOA’s premier event for actuaries working in the health industry. Keynote speaker Dr. Joel Selanikio will kick off the event with insightful experiences and information. Dr. Selanikio, co-founder and CEO of Magpi, is a physician at Georgetown University. He leads Magpi’s efforts to develop and promote new technologies and business models for health and international development, including mobile data collection and messaging software.

PLEASE NOTE: The originally slated luncheon speaker, Austin Eubanks, addiction treatment advocate, has passed away. Our condolences to his family during this difficult time.

Dr. Lipi Roy will instead discuss addiction treatment and related topics on public health. Dr. Roy is nationally recognized as an influencer in the field of addiction. Dr. Roy previously served as the first Chief of Addiction Medicine at NYC jails. She was a primary care doctor to Boston’s vulnerable homeless population in whom the leading cause of death was drug overdose.

Attendees can expect engaging educational sessions to gather valuable insight on the hottest issues facing health care today. Learn more and register today!