Description: This article offers a big picture of PRNR research, and provides brief summaries of research on risks, decisions, financial wellness, advice, and software.

Description: A proposal to reform current health care market, from a 'preferred payer' system, in which Medicare and Medicaid pay less than the true cost while others must then pay more, to a 'value for money' system. This would be achieved by requiring providers to bill all patients the same rate for the same services, with a standard bundling format to make all providers' rate differences transparent. Differences between billed charges and what Medicare pays would be made up by the Medicare patient, rather than subsidized by those outside of Medicare.

Description: Report on the proceedings of the 2010 Long Term Care Think Tank Session, whose goals were to discuss the major issues and challenges facing the LTC insurance industry, and to formulate action items and initiatives to help the industry move ahead. Focus was on understanding the needs & affordability capabilities of different market segments, the limited variety of product designs, shrinking distribution force, regulation and public policy, implications of the CLASS Act, and ideas for educating consumers and marketing products.

Description: This meeting session was held at the SOA's 1975 Annual Meeting in Bal Harbour. The topic presented was the public role of the actuary. Questions addressed were: A. Should the actuarial profession be more active in social issues? B. Do actuarial principles exist and should they be codified? C. How should actuaries react to the various publics they serve? D. Will the actuary evolve into a generalist who evaluates risks, whatever form they take? From the 1975 Record, Vol. 1, No. 4.

Description: At the 2012 ILTCI Conference in Las Vegas, a group of Long-term Care Industry professionals decided we wanted to do something a little bit different. We wanted the audience of our session, "Underwriting and Claims: From the Outside Looking In", to hear from the people who matter most to the LTC industry………our constituents. And we wanted the audience to have the opportunity to discuss issues with these constituents in an open, upfront format.

Description: Many top-performing businesses aren’t just risk aware, but rather risk intelligent. Such a posture helps prepare companies for a major event and can demonstrate to a regulator or auditor that an appropriately strong control framework is in place. Better still, companies gain real strategic value from a “risk adjusted” understanding not only of their threats and vulnerabilities, but also the upside opportunities associated with various risks. It starts with having both qualitative and quantitative information to identify, assess and manage risks. Strategic risk management, at its core, is about creating value by increasing transparency and accountability, and quality of information. More than a mere compliance exercise, effective risk management enables more informed strategic decision making, increased accountability and transparency, a greater likelihood of organizational success, and – ultimately – competitive advantage, as borne out by many studies that correlate risk management and financial results.

Description: A look back at the 30 years since the Health Section was formed.

Description: A review of the last 50 years, concluding that the insurance industry in Canada has been slow to react to consumers' shift in focus from long-term security to rate of return.

Description: Tom Toale discusses the importance of behavioral economics