Description: Panelists at this session of the SOA 1998 Maui II Spring Meeting discuss the purpose and expectations for medical savings accounts [MSA] at the time the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was enacted, and whether these expectations have been achieved.

Description: Abstract for the 2008 ERM Monograph paper, “Estimating Mortality Risk Using Predictive Modeling”

Description: Article recapping prizes for the five best presentations given by graduate students at the 43rd annual ARC.

Description: As health care changes, actuaries need to be able to understand developments and work with users of health plan information. Actuaries also must be a credible source of data. This article describes the efforts of the Society of Actuaries Task Force on Alternative Care to determine the effectiveness of alternative or integrative medicine, including nontraditional techniques such as chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, and nutritional counseling.

Description: As a life reinsurer, understanding mortality risk is mission critical. Superior models of mortality risk lead to more competitive pricing in profitable market segments and more efficient use of capital. Surprisingly, modern statistical tools such as predictive modeling have not previously been used to model mortality data to gain this edge. In this paper, we present the use of a predictive modeling technique called projection pursuit regression PPR to model mortality data. We first describe the process of creating a PPR model using inter-company mortality data collected by the Individual Life Experience Committee of the Society of Actuaries, and present the resulting model. We then discuss the process of using this model as a starting point for creating a more detailed PPR model of internal company mortality data.

Description: Full version of Risks and Rewards Newsletter, October 2003, Issue No. 43.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper in which the authors develop sixteen separate mortality models based on the current SOA mortality data being used for the preferred life study. The models are constructed using projection pursuit regression. The sixteen models arise from all combinations of sex, smoker status, select and ultimate status, and per life vs. per dollar mortality rates. In general the models confirm the following four facts: 1 Mortality rates increase as attained age increases. 2 Mortality rates increase as duration increases. 3 Mortality rates decrease as Face Amount Bands increase. 4. Mortality rates decrease if preferred underwriting is present.

Description: This abstract describes a paper that demonstrates the calculation of parameters for a Gamma-Exponential Mix distribution with moments matching the first three moments of the expected claims by amount for an arbitrary portfolio of life insurance policies.

Description: The Society of Actuaries to fund a research proposal to investigate risk adjusters.

Description: Discussion on Living to 100 Session 4A. Papers presented: Inference for Logistic-type models for the Force of Mortality and, Predictive Modeling for Advanced Age Mortality