CAS Forms Committee on Health and Managed Care Issues; Seeks Input

by Richard I. Fein

At its meeting on March 25, 1998, the Executive Council launched a significant initiative aimed at providing casualty actuaries with information, communication, and research on health and managed care issues in casualty coverages. The Executive Council also established a new standing committee, the Committee on Health and Managed Care Issues in Casualty Coverages, to provide the technical resources to the CAS and its committees as they participate in the initiative. The committee will also provide recommendations to the Executive Council on the progress of the initiative and any changes necessary.

The Executive Council’s action followed a yearlong evaluation by the Task Force on Health and Managed Care Issues. The 27 task force members were drawn from all casualty business lines. They are experienced practitioners and new members-many with extensive experience in health and managed care. A representative of the SOA also participated on the task force. The task force compiled its findings, conclusions, and recommendations into a report delivered to the Executive Council. The recommendations were adopted by the Executive Council at the March meeting.

The report concluded that:

• Health and managed care delivery systems and products will continue to have a growing and significant role in property and casualty products;
• Property/casualty actuaries will continue to be faced with significant changes to products and claims practices due to changes in health care delivery systems;
• There is insufficient information and technical support available to the property/casualty actuary to satisfy and facilitate this growing demand.

As the educator of property/casualty actuaries, the CAS can and should provide the relevant information and educational opportunities to help property/casualty actuaries develop the knowledge needed to understand and evaluate the principal issues affecting property/casualty work.

The task force report contains six recommended actions and 41 detailed steps that the new committee will prioritize and provide to the CAS committees as suggestions for individual committee goals. The report also contains the rationale behind the actions and recommendations. In addition, the report contains complete results of two surveys the task force completed during its evaluation period. Finally, the report contains a bibliography of references and a glossary as a starting point for discussions. The full text of the report is The newly established Committee on Health and Managed Care Issues in Casualty Coverages has been charged with implementing the actions recommended by the Task Force on Health and Managed Care Issues, providing advice and guidance to the CAS committees that are affected by the recommendations, and providing recommendations to the Executive Council to assure that casualty actuaries have sufficient resources to understand and evaluate the developing impact of health and managed care on casualty covers. The committee will also maintain a liaison with other actuarial, technical, and professional organizations. The committee members, all of whom were task force members, will be available to work with the other CAS committees to explain the task force findings and rationale in greater detail.

The committee will continue to communicate the health and managed care-related activities through a home page on the CAS Web Site. We are seeking your input on your needs as practitioners and students. The home page will provide an active discussion channel that will focus on health and managed care. Send your ideas or suggestions for the home page to Mike Boa at the CAS Office and feel free to talk to any of the committee members.