LOMA Health Underwriting Study Group (HUSG): 2010 Annual Conference Summary

Sue Nelson & Kathy Thomas, Co-Vice Chairpersons

This year’s LOMA Health Underwriting Study Group Meeting (HUSG) was held in San Antonio, Texas, on the lovely Riverwalk.

More than 100 members attended this 2 ½ day event, representing 40 Individual and Small Group carriers. About half of the meeting was spent in roundtable discussion of underwriting and other risk management issues and half the meeting was devoted to presentations.

This year’s presentations were particularly valuable to attendees:

• The meeting began with a panel discussion of federal Health Care reform. Panelists included Jon Shreve of Milliman USA, Adam Brackemyre of NAHU, and John Williams, JD of the Senate Finance Committee. These gentlemen each provided a unique perspective of the reform effort and shared their insights as to the future impacts of reform on health insurers.
• Shirley Glazier of BCBS of Michigan spoke about Blue Cross Blue Shield of MI individual plan’s experience in a Guaranteed Issue environment and the challenges they face in providing Michigan residents the coverage to which they are entitled.
• Sue Nelson identified a number of “alternative career paths” that individual and small group underwriters might pursue for preparation beyond 2014.
• Doug Merz of Medical Information Bureau presented the results of a recent study of the impact MIB inquiry would have had 12,000 standard issues.
• Dr. Paul Triggs of Risk-Consulting in Cologne, Germany presented a European model for risk assessment, with insight into how carriers systematically analyze large blocks of individual business and identify areas of claim costs that require attention.
• Dianne Longley of the Texas DOI provided an excellent overview of reform, from a state perspective, focusing on those areas where state and federal partnering will be critical and outlining some areas where federal and state perspectives may be at odds.

Round table discussions are always members’ favorite part of the meeting and this year’s round tables were no exception. Members were able to dialogue about the usual wide range of operational and risk philosophy issues, but also provide one another with insight on reform legislation impacts. Regulatory changes will continue to impact our industry and the industry will evolve in response to these changes. Risk assessment will also evolve but will remain a key competency for medical insurance carriers.

Change has always been and will continue to be inevitable in all walks of life; underwriters and their organizations must adapt. HUSG will continue to do everything possible to help prepare our members with information to accurately interpret the regulation and adjust to new methods of risk assessment. 

For further information, please contact Sue Nelson at snelson0531@sbcglobal.net or Kathy Thomas at kathomasllc@gmail.com.