Educational Sessions

Why is there no such thing now as digital disruption, just digital delivery?   Why is there no more remote work, just work?  One of the world’s leading futurists will help us visualize how the business environment will continue to evolve in a post-COVID world, with a particular emphasis on the health care and insurance sectors.   This powerful keynote presentation will help everyone chart the way forward for their organizations given emerging challenges and opportunities created by digital delivery realities, changing work patterns and related developments.  Note: This session will not be available on-demand after it streams live, so be sure to block your schedule if you plan to watch.

For those newer to the self-insurance/captive insurance industry, this will provide a useful overview to help you better understand self-insured health plans, group captive models, and self-insured workers’ compensation programs…and the potential interplay between these arrangements.

With a second year of heightened health care claims uncertainty coming to a close soon, this session will feature representatives of leading stop-loss carriers who will preview what they think the market will look like in 2022 and how their companies are adapting their business practices consistent with the evolving business environment. This panel of younger influential executives will also discuss emerging challenges and opportunities that stop-loss carriers will need to consider to be the most valuable risk transfer partners for self-insured employers going forward.

From on-line shopping to business meetings, to transportation and delivery services, technology advancements are making countless functions much more efficient and user-friendly. So, what about healthcare? The transformation is happening now through a variety of digital health strategies, with self-insured employers serving as the testing grounds to facilitate the next generation of health care delivery. This session will feature three visionaries in the space who will share their insights on emerging digital health advancements and how self-insured employers should structure their group health plans to ensure that their employees will be able to enjoy a truly improved patient experience.

This session will feature a panel of leading captive attorneys who will discuss the similarities and inconsistencies in recent captive court cases and what they mean for managers, owners and other industry stakeholders. The panel will also explore how the court is shaping the definition of insurance and provide an update on state taxation matters impacting the captive industry.

Over the last few years, broker/advisers of all sizes have been angling to grow their book of business with self-insured employers. Larger brokers tout their resources and experience, while smaller brokers promote more customized capabilities. So, who is wining now and who is better positioned to gain market share in 2022? Don’t miss this lively panel discussion where representatives of larger and smaller brokerage shops make their case and engage in a friendly debate.

Leading actuaries specializing in captive insurance will discuss actuarial principles of risk distribution in pooling arrangements, independent analysis and what recent court rulings mean for the industry.

This year SIIA produced an educational forum focused entirely on provider direct contracting arrangements. For this session we’ve distilled down more than seven hours of deep-dive content into “best of the best” advice on topics to include: value proposition, getting the buy in, the set-up, building the team, the launch, administration and measuring success.

For the past two years, SIIA has produced “Mentor Connection” forums designed to connect younger industry professionals with leading executives for small group career development mentoring sessions. These forums have sparked many interesting conversations highlighting important perspectives from both sides. To give to give you a flavor of what is being said, this session will feature members who participated as part of the most recent Mentor Connection Forum. You will hear about the specific career advancement advice that has been shared, what younger professionals value most in their work environments, mutual expectations and other topics that will be of interest to everyone who cares about the future of the self-insurance/captive insurance industry.

During the course of the pandemic, telehealth has largely been seen simply as a tool to bypass traditional medical treatment settings. But as we emerge from the COVID environment, it is becoming clear that telehealth should be viewed in a broader way as part of a more strategic approach to health care education and delivery, particularly for employer sponsored self-insured group health plans and workers’ compensation programs. Join as a panel of industry experts talk about what is possible and the potential benefits for both employers and employees.

If you are not talking to your employer clients (self-insured or fully-insured) about stop-loss captive programs, it’s only matter of time until another broker does. So, whether this is the right solution for particular clients or not, the smart move is to be proactive in having the discussion. In some cases where this is the right solution, you strengthen your position as a valued advisor. And where it’s not the right solution, you have potentially headed off your client from pursuing this discussion with a competitor. This session will help you “talk captive” and play effectively on both sides of the business line of scrimmage.

The next several years will see the confluence of the Hospital Transparency Rule, the Transparency in Coverage Rule, and the implementation of the recently enacted surprise billing law impacting hospitals, providers and self-insured health plans. This session will address current questions and implementation issues, as well as practicable steps being taken across the industry ahead of the next year and beyond. Panelists will also discuss work being done by the SIIA Price Transparency Working Group.

It may not be obvious why health care brokers should care about P&C group captive programs, but you should, and this session will clue you in. First, some of your clients may currently participate in such a program and knowing this is useful when considering the stop-loss captive option. Second, some of your clients may benefit from participating as part of P&C group captive program (especially now with a hardening market), so you increase your value as an advisor by understanding this potential solution. And finally, there are often revenue opportunities for placing your “health care” employer clients into the right P&C group captive programs should that be the right solution.

Access to detailed health claims data for stop-loss underwriting purposes continues to be a challenge when trying to convert an employer from fully-insured to self-insured. Faced with this obstacle, forward looking leaders in the self-insurance marketplace are exploring how to access and leverage “alternative” data sources for this purpose. These work-arounds include medical information collected direct from plan participants, financial records and even “lifestyle” data and social media platforms that provide clues about potential health risks. Our expert panel will discuss it all and preview what to expect in the years ahead.

With at least five new high-impact specialty pharmaceuticals expected to receive FDA approval this year—some with price tags over $1 million for a single dose or treatment—pressure is accelerating for self-insured employers and their partners to review their approaches to pharmacy benefits. SIIA’s Drug Pricing Task Force has focused on this issue for more than a year and this session will serve as a forum to share the group’s recommendations for self-insurance industry stakeholders and respond to audience questions/comments.

The monitoring and management of chronic diseases has long been a time intensive and costly responsibility for self-insured employers. And being monitored and managed is often inconvenient for patients. But there is a new day coming thanks to advancements in digital health capabilities targeted for Type 2 diabetes, COPD, heart disease and other chronic conditions that will allow for more personalized, mobile-friendly interactions, among other advantages. Join us for this session where we will explore this exciting road ahead.

Individuals with behavioral health conditions in addition to physical conditions spend more on medical treatment overall than other self-insured group health plan members, yet these individuals spend less than $95 on average for behavioral healthcare services each year, according to a recent analysis of claims data for 21 million individuals. Additional research shows that COVID has exacerbated the problem, with 45% of adults reporting their mental health has been negatively impacted according to a recent comprehensive survey. This session will review the data showing how untreated behavioral health conditions contribute to higher overall healthcare costs. Panelists will also discuss how to reverse this trend by implementing five key reforms: improving access to affordable and effective in-network specialty behavioral healthcare providers; early detection of behavioral conditions and tracking of clinical outcomes; use of “Collaborative Care” (as defined in the CoCM reimbursement codes) in primary care settings; expanded access to tele-behavioral health services; and parity law compliance.