Policy Roundtable Abstracts - AcademyHealth

insurance regulators for all 50 of the United States,
Washington D.C., and five U.S. territories. The NAIC
has played a key role in the implementation process of
the aforementioned PPACA provisions. The vast
majority of insurers within the United States provide
annual data on operations and financial performance
that may be useful for evaluating these provisions. The
NAIC panelist can provide important technical insights
regarding the pros and cons of these data for research
applications and can discuss key changes that may be
made in data collection following passage of federal
reform.
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP): The
panel will include a member from AHIP, which is the
national association for health insurers. The proposed
panelist heads AHIP’s Center for Policy and Research,
which conducts innovative research and proposes policy
solutions on the interrelated issues of health care quality,
cost and access, and insurance markets.
Academic Research Community: Also included
on the panel is a health economist who maintains an
active research agenda investigating the market for
health insurance. This person can provide insights on
what is currently known and what gaps exist in our
understanding of the individual and employer-based
markets.
Potential Discussion Questions:
(1) What do we currently know about research on
health insurance market structure and performance
across the three segments
(2) What is the current “state of the world” in terms of
data sources and measures available to evaluate
U.S. health insurance market structure and
performance
(3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing
data sources with respect to studying each of the
market segments Consider issues of variables
collected, timeliness, and granularity
(4) What are the key outcomes and research questions
that policymakers want and need to know, given
the introduction of these new regulations
(5) What types of data infrastructure investments may
be needed for ensuring that rigorous and
generalizable research can be conducted
(6) How should we think about longer-run evaluation
(e.g., once 2014 happens and state exchanges are
in place) Will there be a way to obtain the “big
picture” or will researchers have 50 different data
sources to try to track