In the value-based care (VBC) space, actuaries have their work cut out. They juggle a lot, from handling tons of requests to finding the right balance between speed and detail.  In this blog by Accorded Co-Founder and CEO Frank Cheung, we explore the 3 biggest challenges for actuaries in VBC and how Acumen, the actuarial data transformation platform, makes their job easier and more efficient.

1. Demand for a Diverse Skill Set

Unlike traditional actuaries who typically specialize and silo into one area of expertise, actuaries supporting VBC require a broad and diversified skillset exclusive to their role. Depending on the business case, an actuary might need to call upon a variety of analytical knowledge in different areas such as trend dynamics, case impact assessment, benchmarking, forecasting, reserve implications, risk adjustment, contract modeling, codeset mapping, etc. This context-switching is demanding, especially when actuarial teams are already stretched thin and highly visible to stakeholders.

Solution: Acumen makes this expertise accessible across an actuarial team. As the co-pilot for actuaries in VBC, Acumen supplements their expertise through a repository of data models that makes context switching easier. Acumen empowers actuarial teams to work faster, better, and more confidently across various skill sets in VBC.

2. High Volume of Requests

Another challenge for actuaries is that they usually have a high volume of requests from VBC stakeholders, such as finance, contracting, business development, and clinical teams. This backlog can become overwhelming, making it difficult for actuaries to determine where to allocate their time and resources. Amidst this sea of demands, it becomes imperative to identify and prioritize the critical tasks that will significantly impact the company's bottom line.

Solution: Actuaries are expensive, and for good reason. Their time is precious and their expertise is deep. With Acumen, actuarial teams can automate repetitive tasks and alleviate some of these overwhelming requests that are tedious and manual. This frees actuaries to dedicate more time and energy to higher value-add work. This external reinforcement allows actuaries to focus on the critical tasks that drive the core business forward. 

3. Tradeoff Between Speed vs. Detail

Because of the backlog of requests, the dilemma for actuaries becomes the tradeoff between speed and detail. With a long list of tasks looming, the focus for actuaries shifts from a business standpoint to just clearing the queue. In this rush to tackle the backlog, there's a real danger of sacrificing details for speed. Actuaries may feel pressured to streamline their analyses, overlooking critical factors or nuances that could impact the outcomes. This approach not only undermines the value of their work but also compromises the strategic decision-making process, shortchanging business leaders, which puts strategy at risk. 

Solution: With Acumen, actuarial teams not only automate repetitive tasks but also utilize sophisticated models. This helps actuaries produce more robust analyses without sacrificing speed. With quicker runtimes and clearer outputs, actuarial teams can collaborate more effectively and concentrate on high-value projects that drive strategic impact for the company. This allows actuarial teams to impact business stakeholders better and enhance the overall decision-making processes.

The Bottom Line

Accorded Acumen empowers you to accelerate your value-based care strategy by combining actuarial expertise and modern data engineering. Acumen transforms claims, eligibility, and engagement data into standardized, actuarially rigorous, and ready-to-use value-based care (VBC) data assets, empowering organizations to perform in-house scalable actuarial and med econ analytics.

Benefits

• Enter into value-based care contracts confidently with the right insights, at the right time
• Free engineering teams from building VBC analytics tools, allowing them to focus on core business products
• Increase the productivity and happiness of actuarial and analytics teams through automation
• Align teams with the latest actuarial insights, in one place, to optimize efficiency

Meet with an expert and join forces with Accorded. 

Talk to an Expert