Official Rules

STATEMENT: 2023  Case Competition Finals Event will be IN-PERSON

The Humana-Mays Healthcare Analytics Competition is adapting to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Humana and Mays announced Case Competition Finals will be conducted IN-PERSON for 2023.

Eligibility

Students enrolled and taking classes part-time or full-time in an accredited Master of Science, Master of Arts, Master of Information Systems, Master of Public Health, Master of Business Administration program, or other similar master’s programs that educate students in business, health care, or analytics at an educational institution based in the United States are eligible to enter.

Students must be currently enrolled and taking classes and must not have graduated from the qualifying program at the time of the final round of case competition presentations.

In addition, students must also be physically located in the US from the date of team registration to the final presentations, excluding personal short-term travel of fewer than 2 weeks.

Employees of Humana Inc. are not eligible to participate.

Teams

Teams must be made up of 2 to 4 participants from the same school. Although multiple teams from the same school may enter the competition, a student may not be on more than one team.

If a participant is unable to, or chooses not to, complete the competition, no substitution is permitted.  If the team falls below the 2-person minimum due to a member leaving, the team is no longer eligible to compete.

For teams to be eligible, teams must submit each team member’s name, student email address, and telephone number.  Each team member must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and these must be uploaded to the website by the registration deadline listed in the timeline.  By registering the team agrees to adhere to all rules laid forth by the Sponsor and Organizer of this competition.

Resources and Ethics Statement

The case competition business topic is designed to be ambiguous; such that it mimics real-world business problems, not thoroughly defined.

Students are encouraged to do their own research to educate themselves about healthcare, in general, the specific topic of interest, etc.

However, coaching and mentoring from outside sources, other than your registered teammates, is not allowed.  These outside sources include but are not limited to, university faculty, university teaching assistants, university staff, or other professional consultants in related fields.

By registering for the Humana-Mays Case Competition, each team acknowledges that they will participate with academic honesty and intellectual integrity.  Failure to do so will result in the entire team’s disqualification.

Key Dates (Humana and Mays announced Case Competition Finals will be conducted IN-PERSON for 2023.)

August 1, 2023 Kick-Off Call Registration Opens – Join the kick-off call to find out more details about this year’s competition: business issue, data overview, key dates, etc. 
September 13, 2023 Virtual Kick-Off Call – 4:00 p.m. CST

(Kick-Off Call will be recorded and posted within 3 business days on the competition website – www.mays.tamu.edu/humana-tamu-analytics)
August 1 – September 22, 2023 Team Registration Open – To be verified, ALL team members must be registered and have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. CST on September 22rd.

Competition data will be distributed to registered and verified teams starting after the 9/13 Kick-Off Call and ending after the registration deadline of 9/22.  (Typically, data will be available no more than 48 hours after registration & verification)
September 26, 2023 Virtual Q&A Workshop – 4:00 p.m. CST

Question and Answer session with Humana data specialists.

(Workshop will be recorded and posted within 3 business days on the competition website)
October 2-6 October 9-13, 2023 Leaderboard – Holdout files are electronically submitted via the competition website.  Files submitted by 11:00 a.m. CST will be processed and results posted no later than 7:00 p.m. CST of the same day.  1 submission per team, per day. Although submissions may be made at any point, the Leaderboard will not be updated over the weekend.
October 15, 2023 Submission Deadline – electronically submitted by 11:59 p.m. CST via submission button on the competition website
October 18, 2023 Top 50 Teams advancing to Round Two – announced via competition website at 7:00 p.m. CST
October 25, 2023 Top 5 Finalists advancing to IN-PERSON Finals – announced via competition website at 7:00 p.m. CST
November 1, 2023 Presenters Availability Verification – Presenters must verify their availability to participate in the virtual finals.
November 8, 2023 IN-PERSON Final Presentation Submission Deadline – electronically submitted by 5:00 p.m. CST via submission button on the competition website
November 8, 2023 IN-PERSON Finals Reception – Finalists, Humana, and Texas A&M University 5:00-6:30 p.m. CST
November 9, 2023 IN-PERSON Finals Presentations – Opening Ceremony begins at 7:45 a.m. CST. Estimated ending time is 4:00 p.m. CST
November 9, 2023 Winners announced at Awards Presentation
December 15, 2023

(approximate)

 Prizes awarded to winning teams

Judging

Entries will be judged in three rounds.

ROUND ONE

This round is a simple quantitative evaluation of a team’s solution based on its ability to accurately predict the specific business issue and provide a ‘fair’ (i.e., equal opportunity) solution.

  • Submissions will be evaluated using a holdout file where the team provides a predicted score and comparing their predicted score to the known result, held by Humana.
    • Accuracy will be measured using the observed ROC curve and AUC metric
    • Fairness will be measured using the observed Disparity score based on RACE and SEX
  • The top 50 solutions based on accuracy & fairness solutions will advance to Round Two. If there is a tie for the 50th spot, all teams tying for that position will advance.
  • A mid-cycle leaderboard will be available to allow teams – prior to the submission deadline – to see how the performance metrics associated with their model stack up against other teams in the competition.  Once the final submission date has passed; the highest performance metric for each team will used to determine the Top 50 Teams advancing to Round 2 of the competition.
    • Leaderboard benefits:
      • Based on a team’s performance, they will have the opportunity to go back and continue to refine/hone their model until they are comfortable based on their relative placement.
      • The leaderboard serves as an opportunity for teams to quality check their validation file submission to ensure it meets the stated requirements.
    • Participating teams are not required to participate in the leaderboard.
    • Teams may submit multiple times to the leaderboard during the two weeks offered. However, teams may only submit one file each day.

ROUND TWO

  • Multiple judges will review each of the advancing submissions from Round One, based on the entirety of the solution: approach, analytics, insights, recommendations, and actionability.  Judging will be conducted by multiple subject matter experts made up of Data Science professionals from Humana and PhD candidates from Texas A&M.
    • Each of the Top 50 submissions will be read and evaluated by a panel of five judges
    • The scores of judging panel will be analyzed and combined to create a composite score for each submission.

    The rubric and weighting associated with each category are as follows:

    • 20% – Establishing key performance indicators aligned to business needs
    • 30% – Depth and description of quantitative analysis resulting in actionable business insights
    • 50% – Ability to provide meaningful implications and recommendations based on results/insights

    The five (5) teams with the highest composite scores in Round Two will be deemed finalists and move on to Round Three.

    In the event of a tie in Round Two, the team with the highest score in the third category (“Ability to provide meaningful implications and recommendations based on results/insights”) will advance. If the teams are still tied, the team with the highest score awarded by Humana judges will advance. If the teams are still tied, the judges will select the team deemed to have submitted the better overall entry, and that team will advance.

ROUND THREE

Humana and Mays announced Case Competition Finals will be conducted virtually for 2023.

The final round will build on previous rounds by demonstrating the solution’s ease of understanding, impact to the business, and viability with regards to implementation.

A panel of Humana executives and Texas A&M professors will listen and evaluate virtual final presentations given by the finalists.  The judges will evaluate each presentation using the following criteria:

  • 10% – Clear understanding of the business challenge
  • 30% – Summary of approach and resulting business insights
  • 40% – So What? How will this solution help improve/impact the business
  • 20% – Presentation effectiveness: professionalism, clarity of message, visualizations, and ability to answer questions

Following the virtual final presentations, judges will score the entries, and will meet in private to discuss and debate their initial scores.  The judges will convene until they agree upon the placement of the 5 finalists based on their final scores.  The team with the highest score will be the First Place Winner; the team with the second-highest score will be the Second Place Winner; and the team with the third-highest score will be the Third Place Winner.

To be eligible for Round Three, at least one member of a two-person team and at least two members of a three- or four-person team must present in person. If a potential finalist team is not able to meet this requirement, then a virtual option will be considered on a case by case basis. If a resolution cannot be met then the team with the next highest score in Round 2 will become a finalist.

Additional information:

  • Final presentations will be held at 842 West Sam Houston Pkwy N Suite 110 / 200, Houston, TX 77024.  Teams should be present by 7:45 a.m., and presentations will begin at 8:30 a.m.  Each team may use up to 30 minutes to virtually present and will need to allocate the time for presentation and Q&A at their own discretion.
  • Students should wear business attire for presentations.
  • Sponsor will pay for travel and lodging for the finalist teams.
  • Every student who is present during the virtual final presentations on a team must take an active role in the presentation. (Remember, at least one member of a two-person team and at least two members of a three- or four-person team must contribute during the virtual presentation.)

Prizes

Cash prizes will be awarded as follows:

  • First Place – $50,000
  • Second Place – $20,000
  • Third Place – $10,000
  • Fourth and Fifth Place – $5000 each

Prizes will be awarded in the form of checks and the prize amounts will be divided evenly among team members; where it is not possible to divide the amount exactly equally for a four-person team, the team will instruct Sponsor as to which amounts will go to which team members.

Releases

  • Sponsor/Organizer are not responsible for late, lost, misdirected, corrupted, mislabeled, or unintelligible entries, or incorrect contact information for any team member, in any round, including entries or notifications not received because of interrupted or unavailable network servers, failed communications networks or equipment, computer hardware or software, or other errors or malfunctions whether human, mechanical, or electronic.
  • Any team suspected of tampering with or disrupting any aspect of the competition will be disqualified.
  • All decisions of Sponsor/Organizer are final.

Teams and team members, by participating in the competition:

  • agree to be bound by these Official Competition Rules
  • agree to release, indemnify, and hold Sponsor and Organizer, their affiliates, parents, subsidiaries, divisions, and all of their officers, directors, employees, and agents (the “Released Entities”) harmless from any and all claims, liabilities, losses, and damages of any kind arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from team/team members’ participation in the competition
  • agree that the Released Entities may use team and team members’ name and likeness for the purpose of promoting and publicizing the competition and future competitions
  • agree that Sponsor may contact them for recruiting purposes (with the right to opt out of further email contact)
  • agree that their presentation may be recorded and used by Sponsor and Texas A&M University for internal purposes and for recruiting
  • agree that any dispute or claim will be resolved individually and without resort to class action.

Sponsor

The Sponsor of the competition is Humana Inc., 500 W. Main St., Louisville, Kentucky 40202.

Organizer

The Organizer of the competition is Texas A&M University, Mays Business School, 6000 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843.