The Marble Health Plan sets aside a PMPM amount for each specialty.
When a PCP in Marble's provider network refers a Marble plan member to a specialist and the specialist provides medical services to the member, the specialist begins to receive a share of those funds on a monthly basis. Marble determines the monthly payment for each specialist by dividing the number of active patients for that specialty by the total specialty pool for that month.
This form of payment, which is similar to a case rate, is known as
Mandated benefit laws are state or federal laws that require health plans to arrange for the financing and delivery of particular benefits. Within a market, the implementation of mandated benefit laws is likely to cause __________.
The provider contract that Dr. Timothy Meyer, a pediatrician, has with the Cardigan health plan states that Cardigan will compensate him under a capitation arrangement. However, the contract also includes a typical low enrollment guarantee provision. Statements that can correctly be made about this arrangement include that the low enrollment guarantee provision most likely:
One true statement about cash-basis accounting is that
The physicians who work for the Sunrise Health Plan, a staff model HMO, are paid a salary that is not augmented with another type of incentive plan. Compared to the use of a traditional reimbursement method, Sunrise's use of a salary reimbursement method is more likely to
A health plan that capitates a provider group typically provides or offers to provide stop-loss coverage to that provider group.
This concept, which holds that a company should record the amounts associated with its business transactions in monetary terms, assumes that the value of money is stable over time. This concept provides objectivity and reliability, although its relevance may fluctuate.
From the following answer choices, choose the name of the accounting concept that matches the description.
The following statements illustrate common forms of capitation:
1. The Antler Health Plan pays the Epsilon Group, an integrated delivery system (IDS), a capitated amount to provide substantially all of the inpatient and outpatient services that Antler offers. Under this arrangement, Epsilon accepts much of the risk that utilization rates will be higher than expected. Antler retains responsibility for the plan's marketing, enrollment, premium billing, actuarial, underwriting, and member services functions.
2. The Bengal Health Plan pays an independent physician association (IPA) a capitated amount to provide both primary and specialty care to Bengal's plan members. The payments cover all physician services and associated diagnostic tests and laboratory work. The physicians in the IPA determine as a group how the individual physicians will be paid for their services.
From the following answer choices, select the response that best indicates the form of capitation used by Antler and Bengal.
The sentence below contains two pairs of words enclosed in parentheses. Determine which word in each pair correctly completes the statement. Then select the answer choice containing the two words that you have chosen. Purchasing stop-loss coverage most likely (increases / reduces) a health plan's underwriting risk and (increases / reduces) the health plan’s affiliate risk.
The following statements indicate the pricing policies of two health plans that operate in a particular market:
From the following answer choices, select the response that correctly indicates the most likely market effects of the pricing policies used by Accent and Bolton.
A stop-loss contract may provide that claims are settled using a paid claims method or an incurred claims method. The Concord Company provides health coverage to its employees through a self-funded health plan. On March 17, a Concord employee who is enrolled in this plan underwent surgery, and the surgery was sufficiently expensive to trigger Concord's specific stop-loss coverage. On April 10, Concord paid the medical expenses associated with the surgery. The term of the stop-loss contract ended on April 1. This information indicates that the stop-loss carrier is responsible for paying a portion of the cost of the surgery under
An actuary for the Noble Health Plan observed that the plan's actual morbidity was lower than its assumed morbidity and that the plan's actual administrative expenses were higher than its assumed administrative expenses. In this situation, Noble's actual underwriting margin was
Provider reimbursement methods that transfer some utilization risk from a health plan to providers affect the health plan's RBC formula. A health plan's use of these reimbursement methods is likely to result in
Kevin Olin applied for individual healthcare coverage from the Mercury health plan. Before issuing the policy, Mercury's underwriters attached a rider that excludes from coverage any loss that results from Mr. Olin's chronic knee problem. This information indicates that Mr. Olin's policy includes
The following statements are about the financial risks for health plans in Medicare and Medicaid markets. Three of these statements are true, and one statement is false. Select the answer choice containing the FALSE statement.
One true statement about a type of capitation known as a percent-of-premium arrangement is that this arrangement
The following statements are about a health plan's evaluation of its responsibility centers. Select the answer choice containing the correct statement.
The Jamal Health Plan operates in a state that mandates that a health plan either allow providers to become part of its network or reimburse those providers at the health plan’s negotiated-contract rate, so long as the non-contract provider is willing to perform the services at the contract rate. This type of law is known as:
The amount of risk for health plan products is dependent on the degree of influence and the relationships that the health plan maintains with its providers. Consider the following types of managed care structures:
Of these health plan products, the one that would most likely expose a health plan to the highest risk is the:
The risk-based capital formula for health plans defines a number of risks that can impact a health plan’s solvency. These categories reflect the fact that the level of risk faced by health plans is significantly impacted by provider reimbursement methods that shift utilization risk to providers. The following statements are about the effect of a health plan transferring utilization risk to providers. Select the answer choice containing the correct statement:
The Jade Health Plan used a profitability index (PI) to rank the following capital proposals:
Proposal PI
A0.45
B1.05
This information indicates that, of these two projects, Jade would most likely select:
The types of financial risks and costs to which a health plan is subject depends on whether the health plan provides services to the Medicare and/or Medicaid populations or to the commercial population. One distinction between providing services to the Medicare and Medicaid populations and to the commercial population is that Medicare and Medicaid enrollees typically:
One difference between the internal and external analysis of a health plan's financial information is that
The Savanna health plan used a risk analysis technique which defines the key assumptions of Savanna's strategic financial plan in terms of mathematical formulas that can be correlated to each other or analyzed independently. This technique allowed Savanna to simulate probable future events on a computer and produce a distribution of possible outcomes. This risk analysis technique, which can be used to predict Savanna's distribution of expected claims, is known as
A health plan most likely would use benchmarking in order to
Geena Falk is eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid coverage. If Ms. Falk incurs a covered expense, then:
All publicly traded health plans in the United States are required to prepare financial statements for use by their external users in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In addition, health insurers and health plans that fall under the jurisdiction of state insurance departments are required by law to prepare certain financial statements in accordance with statutory accounting practices (SAP). In a comparison of GAAP to SAP, it is correct to say that:
The Coral Health Plan, a for-profit health plan, has two sources of capital:
Debt and equity. With regard to these sources of capital, it can correctly be stated that
The following information relates to the Hardcastle Health Plan for the month of June:
This information indicates that Hardcastle’s medical loss ratio (MLR) for the month of June was approximately equal to:
The Rathbone Company has contracted with the Jarvin Insurance Company to provide healthcare benefits to its employees. Under this contract, Rathbone assumes financial responsibility for paying 80% of its estimated annual claims and for depositing the funds necessary to pay these claims into a bank account. Although Rathbone owns the bank account, Jarvin, acting as Rathbone’s agent, makes the actual claims payments from this account. Claims in excess of Rathbone’s contracted percentage are paid by Jarvin. Rathbone pays to Jarvin a premium for administering the entire plan and bearing the costs of claims in excess of Rathbone’s obligation. This premium is substantially lower than would be charged if Jarvin were providing healthcare coverage under a traditional fully insured group plan. Jarvin is required to pay premium taxes only on the premiums it receives from Rathbone. This information indicates that the type of alternative funding method used by Rathbone is known as a:
With regard to alternative funding arrangements, the part of a health plan premium that is intended to contribute to the claims reserve that a health plan maintains to pay for unusually high utilization is known as the:
Variance analysis is the study of the difference between expected results and actual results. Variances can be positive or negative. A positive variance is typically considered: