How Health Insurers Use AccuWeather Data to Improve Underwriting and Forecast Claims
AccuWeather’s Lifestyle & Health Indices include Asthma, COPD, Flu, Common Cold, Migraine Headache, Sinus Headache, and Arthritis Pain.
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Healthcare professionals with the Association of Minnesota Chinese Physicians unload 2,000 face masks the association donated Wednesday, April 8, 2020 to Mercy Hospital-Unity Campus, in Fridley, Minn. to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Executive Summary
Health insurers can strengthen underwriting, forecast weather-related claims, and support proactive member outreach with the AccuWeather Data Suite. With more than 300 weather parameters available through the AccuWeather API, insurers can connect historical, current, and forecast conditions to claims and utilization records. AccuWeather’s proven Superior Accuracy™ helps insurers assess weather exposure and make better-informed pricing and resource planning decisions.
Key Takeaways
-- Historical weather data helps insurers identify relationships between weather exposure, healthcare utilization, and claims.
-- Forecast data and Lifestyle & Health Indices can inform demand planning and outreach to members with weather-sensitive health conditions.
-- Historical Forecasts allow insurers to evaluate models using the forecasts available when decisions were made.
<<AccuWeather's Data Suite is by far the most robust weather database available. Request a free consultation today. >>
Connect Historical Weather Data With Health Insurance Claims
AccuWeather’s Historical Weather Data enables insurers to examine how heat, cold, humidity, and air quality have correlated with emergency visits and hospital admissions across covered populations. Joining these observations with claims and utilization records can reveal location-specific and seasonal patterns, helping underwriting teams account for weather exposure alongside other risk factors.
Use Current Conditions and Forecasts to Anticipate Demand
Current & Real-Time Weather Data helps insurers update their assessments as conditions change. Forecast data supports estimates of near-term healthcare utilization and helps identify opportunities to contact high-risk members before hazardous conditions arrive. These insights can guide care management outreach, staffing, and resource allocation.
Validate Underwriting Models With Historical Forecasts
AccuWeather’s Historical Forecasts preserve what was predicted at a particular time. Insurers can use this information to evaluate models against the forecasts available when a decision was made, reducing reliance on hindsight and creating a more realistic assessment of predictive performance.
Assess Weather-Sensitive Health Risks
AccuWeather’s Lifestyle & Health Indices include Asthma, COPD, Flu, Common Cold, Migraine Headache, Sinus Headache, and Arthritis Pain. These indices characterize weather conditions associated with specific health concerns, providing additional inputs for utilization models and member engagement programs. RealFeel® Temperature adds context about how outdoor conditions feel beyond the measured air temperature.
<<READ MORE: Weather and Health Care Operations: How Hospitals Use Forecasts to Plan Staffing>>
Support Proactive Weather Response
For programs that also incorporate site-specific storm warnings, those warnings are prepared by expert storm warning meteorologists, who physically monitor each location. This expert oversight complements weather data analysis and supports timely decisions as severe weather threatens covered communities.
Action Steps for Businesses
Start by connecting historical weather data with claims and utilization records for a defined population, location, and time period. Evaluate whether weather variables improve model performance, validate results using Historical Forecasts, and integrate relevant forecasts and health indices into underwriting and care management workflows.
AccuWeather’s Data Suite
AccuWeather provides exclusive data parameters and indices, including MinuteCast®, RealFeel®, AccuLumen Brightness™, and hundreds of others, delivering the best and most differentiated insight
Explore 300+ forecast parameters backed by AccuWeather’s proven Superior Accuracy™.
Leverage the industry’s most advanced weather dataset — including hyper-local forecasts, air quality metrics, and operational indices — to drive smarter decisions across energy, retail, logistics, and more.
AccuWeather’s Data Suite is by far the most robust weather database available. The most accurate set of past, current and forecast weather data available with over 300 parameters to help you save money, reduce losses and operate more efficiently while keeping employees and customers safer. Request a free consultation today.
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