The Milliman Atlas of Public Employer Health Plans is a research effort created to support and improve public-sector decision making by providing data-driven health plan benchmarking and analysis. This research effort seeks to provide useful tools and analysis for the questions faced by public employers and related stakeholders, including:

• Benefit benchmarking: Understand how your health benefits compare objectively using the widest data set available.
• Data-driven analysis for common public-employer decisions: Inform benefit decisions by leveraging the experiences of other public employers; examples include:
  • Self-insurance versus fully-insured purchasing
  • Premium contribution strategies
  • Retiree benefit commitments
• Premium trend monitoring: View premium trends in real-time and adjusted for benefit changes.
• Competitive intelligence: Understand current trends in public employer purchasing, such as prevailing benefit-design changes and market-share dynamics.

The database includes details on:

• Benefit design: copayments, deductibles, coinsurance, and the other components of benefit design that determine a health plan’s cost (and the employee’s cost of care)
• Premiums: total premiums and employer/employee contributions by dependent tiers

The Atlas combines this unique data with Milliman’s recognised expertise in health actuarial research to provide rigorous, objective analysis of the issues facing public employers.

Under unprecedented fiscal stress, and with health benefit decisions increasing in both significance and complexity, Milliman saw a need for more independent resources. Through both publicly available research and custom consulting engagements, the Atlas is intended to support these decisions, bolstering the capacity of government entities to fulfill their public mission.