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… certainly have seen much more conservative pricing in stop-loss renewals, which indicates that entities bearing the risk of the cost of large claims are being conservative in their estimate of the catastrophic claim levels which will emerge in 2021. Another source of uncertainty is the impact on claims of the continuing cost of COVID-19 care. Since the vaccine will largely be funded by the U.S. government, at least initially, costs to health plans will be for vaccine administration, which we estimate to be around $8.33 per employee per month. It’s possible that the cost for

The New York Times (NYT) reported that 13 vaccines are currently in the final stages of testing. Phase 1 testing involves a small sample of people to test safety, dosage, and confirm that the immune system is stimulated by the drug. Phase 2 increases the sample to hundreds of people, testing further for safety/efficacy, and segments the test group to see if different populations experience different outcomes. Phase 3 involves thousands of patients, some of whom receive a placebo. Along the path toward approval, testing may be halted in the event adverse or unexpected outcomes are noted. This has …