Description: Chapter 6 identifies four general and practical considerations in comparing methods: practicality and administrative cost, ability to restrict manipulation, timeliness and predictability, and incentives for efficiency and quality care. From A Comparative Analysis of Methods of Health Risk Assessment, M-HB96-1.

Description: Exploration of sources of volatility in retiree health valuations, noting how volatility arises and might be mitigated, with discussion of valuation parameters more problematic for retiree health benefits than for pensions. Three significant influences on retiree health valuation volatility are covered-- changes in benefit level, fluctuations in cost level, and alterations in eligibility for, or duration of, benefit – and attention focused on the last two. Specific conclusions result in recommendations, which are supported by practical examples contrasting volatile measurement results with those likely from the recommended practices. Theoretical discussion includes health claim variation, health trend usage, financial economics, option pricing, discount rates, and deterministic vs. stochastic modeling.

Description: Discusses: Types of medical expense insurance being offered and features, risk management, pricing, and methods of pre-funding retiree benefits.

Description: This discussion looks at: what period or combination of periods could reliably be used for valuation purposes, if the practice of applying the rate of disability to mixed lives in the construction of monetary tables is appropriate, and problems from the use of the assumed date at commencement of disability as contrasted with the use of the date at the end of the waiting period.

Description: This discussion seeks to answer what reserves are required for individual accident and sickness policies, looks at the actuary's responsibility for experience analysis, discusses product development and policy change problems, and examines the major current developments affecting individual accident and sickness insurance.

Description: This session addresses buying or selling a block of long-term disability or life waiver claims: assumptions used to value these blocks, how life waiver business differs from long-term disability business, and possible structures for a deal. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 28, No. 2, Session 65

Description: This session discussion is about the effect of changes in medical practices and technology, effect of cost shifting, measurement and analysis and employers' perspective. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 15, No. 3A.

Description: Health Watch, Issue 79, December 2015, Health Watch

Description: Influenza overview (virus types, health impacts, vaccination process/efficacy) and how actuaries can incorporate basic flu knowledge into their work.

Description: This article describes a method that can be useful when re-fitting a risk score model to a population of only moderate size. Learn how to use concepts like ridge regression to train a model with partial credibility.