Description: Full version of Health Section News, Issue No. 55, May 2007.

Description: This collection of essays provides a thought-provoking array of views and perspectives related to Financial Wellness.

Description: Full version of Risk Management, September 2007, Issue No. 11.

Description: Healthcare costs have been rising faster than general inflation for many years. Early models that predicted this past pattern projected healthcare expenditure growth that continued to outpace total expenditure growth leading to the fallacious position that the whole of the US economy would ultimately be consumed by healthcare. The Society of Actuaries' Pension Section and Health Section Research teams commissioned Professor Thomas E. Getzen of Temple University to construct a resource model for the projection of long term healthcare cost trends that includes capacity constraints to ensure the long-term projection is rational. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements. This is a zip file containing the following: 1. A background paper on the creation of the health trend model, 2. The model, programmed in Microsoft Excel [xls format], that projects per-person expenditures and growth rates through 2099 using baseline assumptions, but also permits the flexibility for user–inputted alternative assumptions, and 3. Technical documentation providing transparency and support for the ultimate results.

Description: SOA’s Pension and Health Sections recently released a new resource model for projecting health care trends through the year 2099.

Description: SOA’s recently completed research project related to long term projects of health care cost trends for use in post retirement medical valuations.

Description: In the last research column, the Research Expanding Boundaries Pool (REX Pool) was discussed, and it was noted that it is now open for business. Since that time, applications from the first round of the pool have been reviewed. In total, the Research Executive Committee (REC) received 17 applications for funding, totaling over $900,000. After much deliberation, the REC allocated its 2012 REX Pool budget of $400,000 to seven diverse ideas that will become new SOA-sponsored (or cosponsored) research projects.

Description: Full version of Risks & Rewards Newsletter, August 2005, Issue No. 47.

Description: Recognizing an opportunity to help serve its members in this age of increased financial oversight, the Health Section of the Society of Actuaries commissioned a series of guides on the use of statistical techniques specifically geared for the work of health actuaries. From Health Watch Newsletter, January 2008, Issue No. 57.

Description: Recognizing an opportunity to help serve its members in this age of increased financial oversight, the Health Section of the Society of Actuaries commissioned a series of guides on the use of statistical techniques specifically geared for the work of health actuaries. The first guide in the series titled, 'Statistical Methods for Health Actuaries - IBNR Estimates: An Introduction,' is about the calculation of incurred but not reported [IBNR] health claims reserves. In particular, the guide focuses on the development of confidence intervals around IBNR estimates. This is an Excel workbook created to demonstrate the techniques discussed in the guide.