Behind the Numbers: 2011 Medical Cost Trends

	Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Eastern (10:00 - 11:15 a.m. Pacific) Click here to find out what time your event starts in your time zone.		Register for $225 Call 209.577.4888 or Click here to register
Results from PwC annual employer medical cost trends survey Trends and Implications for 2011 Employer benefit decisions

Detailed research data findings from the Behind the Numbers 2011 Medical Cost Trend Report

Primary deflators and inflators driving current medical cost trends

Implications for Employers and other applicable stakeholders regarding these trends

Specific plan design changes and other key issues being addressed by decision-makers

New post-recession, post-health reform strategies being undertaken by Employers and Providers

Faculty:
Mike Thompson
Principal, H.R. Services PricewaterhouseCoopers

Faculty:
Jack Rodgers PhD
Dir. of Health Policy Economics, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Faculty:
Rick Judy
Partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers

For more than 50 years, US employers have used health benefits as a critical part of their compensation package to recruit and retain workers. The value of these benefits is becoming an even more visible part of overall compensation as medical costs grow, and, by 2014, health insurance benefits will shift from being a voluntary benefit to an individual mandate, enforced by new tax levies. Companies are now working with their health plan providers for new post-recession, post-health reform strategies to sustain their programs and promote health and well-being as their next competitive advantage.

Each year, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute provides estimates on growth of private medical costs over the next year and what the leading drivers of the trend are expected to be, published in the Institute's "Behind the Numbers" Report on medical cost trends for the coming year. Insurance companies use medical cost trends to help set health plan premiums by estimating what the same health plan this year would cost in the next year. In turn, employers use the information to make adjustments in benefit plan design to help offset any cost increases.

The Behind the Numbers Report includes findings of the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health and Well-Being Touchstone Survey of more than 700 employers from 30 industries, as well as interviews with health plan actuaries and other executives whose companies provide health insurance for 47 million American workers and their families.

While the Report indicates a projected medical cost trend decrease from 9.5% in 2010 to 9.0% in 2011, the small decrease hides a more complicated set of forces, including identified primary deflators and inflators that drive these trends The Report also addresses such forces as specific components of health reform, which will deliver minor impacts in 2011, but major impacts in 2014, and thus require long-range positioning and planning.

This session presents detailed research findings from the Behind the Numbers report, and offers a thorough discussion of implications for employers and others with respect to health benefit and services decision-making, including such issues as benefit design, hospital cost-shifting, EHR, generic drugs, COBRA, wellness programs, retiree coverage and more.

Participants will be able to:

Examine the research data findings from the Behind the Numbers 2011 Medical Cost Trend Report
Identify the primary deflators and inflators driving current medical cost trends
Consider the implications for Employers and other applicable stakeholders regarding these trends
Focus on specific plan design changes and other key issues being addressed by decision-makers
Understand new post-recession, post-health reform strategies employers and providers are positioning towards, in order to sustain programs and promote health and well-being to their competitive advantage.
Engage in interactive learning through online question submission, attendee feedback and opportunity for follow up questions, and networking with attendees, faculty and other professionals through dedicated LinkedIn group

Interested attendees would include:

C-Suite Executives
Health Benefit Executives and Staff
Human Resources Executives
Strategy, Planning and Policy Executives and Staff
Actuarial Executives and Staff
Business Intelligence Staff
Informatics and Analytics Executives and Staff
Other Interested Parties

Attendees would represent organizations including:

Employers
Health Plans
Third Party Administrators
Agents
PBMs
Benefit Consulting Organizations
Provider Networks
Solutions Providers
Associations, Institutes and Research Organizations
Media
Other Interested Organizations

Individual Registration Fee: $225. Audio Conference CD-ROM: $40 for attendees; $285 for non-attendees after the event.

Corporate Site licensing also available. Click here to register or call 209.577.4888 We look forward to your participation in this event!

Mike Thompson
Principal,
Human Resource Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Michael Thompson is a Principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers with over 25 years of experience in healthcare and employee benefits strategy, product development and implementation, design, financing, operations and analysis. Mike consults with major employers and other stakeholders on sustainable cost reduction, integrated health, wellness and consumerism, retiree health, and health reform.

Mike serves as one of PwC's national thought leaders for health strategies for the health industries practice, leading subject matter specialist on health reform and has participated on the steering board of the World Economic Forum "Working for Wellness" initiative. For the past decade has been a leader in developing and promoting collaborative cross-sector health industry initiatives.

Mike is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and serves on the Health Practices Committee, Disease Management Committee, Medicare Committee as well as chair of the Quality Initiatives Work Group of the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA) which has release issue briefs on pay-for performance, comparative effectiveness and value-based insurance design. Mike also serves on the boards of the New York chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the New York Business Group on Health.

Jack Rodgers PhD
Director of Health Policy Economics, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Dr. Jack Rodgers has more than twenty-five years of experience with federal health policy and legislation related to health services and prescription drugs. He has written extensively about issues such as health insurance reform, Medicare provider reimbursement, and prescription drug coverage. While at PwC, Dr. Rodgers has assisted major healthcare organizations in evaluating the impact of federal legislation—from the Clinton health proposals in 1993-1994 to the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. During the past five years, he has written extensively on the impact of the Medicare prescription drug benefit on Medicare beneficiaries, health plans, employers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Rodgers' recent studies on medical trends, Behind the Numbers and The Factors Fueling Rising Healthcare Costs 2006 have been cited by USA Today, UPI, LA Times, Modern Healthcare, and other major news organizations. His 2004 report, The Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit: Potential Impact on Beneficiaries was summarized on the official Medicare website. Another study, The Potential Impact of Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit on Pharmaceutical Companies, was quoted on NBC news and by FactCheck.org at the time of the second presidential debate. Dr. Rodgers served as a consultant to President Clinton's White House Task Force on Health Reform as part of a group of experts who audited the quantitative estimates of the President's health reform plan.

Before joining PwC, Dr. Rodgers was principal analyst for health at the Congressional Budget Office for nine years where he worked on the 1987 Medicare prescription drug legislation and also analyzed the first Bush Administration’s proposals to expand coverage. He authored the CBO report, Selected Options for Expanding Health Insurance Coverage.

Rick Judy
Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Rick is a Principal in the Health Industries Advisory practice based in San Francisco. Rick joined the Health Industries Advisory practice in 1995, supporting healthcare clients on mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, information technology and compliance related initiatives. During his years of consulting, Rick has worked in many segments of health care, including insurance companies, employers, hospitals, health systems, long-term care facilities, and community and government organizations. Over the past several years, Rick has been focused on:

Sourcing Effectiveness
Operational Assessment & Cost Reduction
Large Scale Program Management
Strategic Information Systems Assessment and Planning
eBusiness Strategy through Implementation
Product Strategy and Operational Readiness Assessments
Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence
IT and Operational Compliance

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