New Health Economics Study Results Reported from Harvard Medical School (Reinsurance, Repayments, and Risk Adjustment In Individual Health Insurance Germany, the Netherlands, and the Us Marketplaces)

2020 OCT 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Fresh data on Economics - Health Economics are presented in a new report. According to news reporting originating in Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Reinsurance can complement risk adjustment of health plan payments to improve fit of payments to plan spending at the individual and group level. This paper proposes three improvements in health plan payment systems using reinsurance.”

Funders for this research include Laura and John Arnold Foundation, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Harvard Medical School, “First, we base reinsurance payments on spending not accounted for by the risk adjustment system, rather than just high spending. Second, we propose pairing reinsurance for individual-level losses with repayments for individual-level profits. Third, we optimize the weights on the risk adjustors taking account of the presence of reinsurance/repayment. We implement our methodology in data from Germany, the Netherlands and the US Marketplaces, comparing our modified approach to plan payment with risk adjustment as currently practiced in the three settings.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The combination of the three improvements yields very substantial improvements in the individual-level fit of payments to plan spending in all three countries.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Reinsurance, Repayments, and Risk Adjustment In Individual Health Insurance Germany, the Netherlands, and the Us Marketplaces. American Journal of Health Economics, 2020;6(1):139-168. American Journal of Health Economics can be contacted at: Univ Chicago Press, 1427 E 60TH St, Chicago, IL 60637-2954, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Thomas G. McGuire, Harvard Medical School, Dept. of Health Care Policy, Boston, MA 02115, United States. Additional authors for this research include Sonja Schillo and Richard C. van Kleef.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1086/706796. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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