IT Team Delivers Financial And Environmental Green

摘要

Highmark, a provider of health insurance to about 4.6 million Pennsylvanians primarily through employer-sponsored benefit plans, walks a high wire when it comes to pricing its premiums. If it sets prices too high, it may lose customers to lower-cost competitors. But if prices are too low, the company's revenue erodes. The group tasked with this balancing act is High-mark's actuarial department. Actuaries analyze incoming health care claims and make pricing recommendations based on forecasts of future trends. For instance, if the actuaries see a rise in claims for CT scans, they may recommend adjusting the premium to cover these costs. Of course, anyone who's been soaked in a rain shower when a weather report predicted sunshine knows forecasters don't always get it right. For Highmark's actuaries, a bad call results in a different kind of soaking-missing a 1% change in a trend can mean losing millions of dollars.