Description: The diary of Dirk Nieder, an actuary who traveled in Asia amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tying in what he saw in asia countries and developments from the west.

Description: In the past months, as COVID-19 has forced the reduced activity in the U.S. economy there has been some very substantial, but varied effects on the U.S. healthcare system. There is a lot of potential for confusion amongst providers and patients with regards to decisions related to which services ought to be rendered and which ought to be deferred. Two specific agencies – the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) have put together some guidance to add more clarity towards what types of services should be provided and what types ought to be deferred. In addition, this paper includes a discussion on what types of services are most likely to be deferred, and which ones will accrue pent-up demand to be released when many of the deferred services become available again.

Description: The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) recently released their annual health care cost and utilization report on February 13, 2020. This report illustrates employer group commercial health care costs and trends from 2014 – 2018.

Description: The always popular Medicaid Hot Topics session is back with discussions from an expert panel on the most riveting Medicaid topics of the year. These could include the following: • Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Proposed Regulations• Tennessee's Block Grant Proposal• ACA court battles: What are the potential impacts on Medicaid? • Pass-through payments are converting to directed payments: What is changing?• And more current topics of interest to Medicaid actuariesMedicaid is dynamic and it is difficult to stay current on all of the changes. This session provides insightful discussion into the major changes that impact actuaries and their companies or state clients.

Description: The following report is the first iteration of a project to illustrate international models of health care funding.

Description: The report looks at the different outcomes for the 50 states from the ACA, in terms of cost and availability of health insurance coverage. It identifies 11 key observations since the passage of the ACA.

Description: Leader Interview With Greger J. Vigen

Description: Health insurance company assets and liabilities have evolved since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March 2010. The ACA fundamentally rearranged how commercial health insurance is funded by integrating federal premium subsidies and pass-throughs together with a marketplace interwoven with transfer payments among stakeholders. The impacts of these programs can be seen in specific accounting items on the balance sheets of health insurance companies over the past 10 years. Their emergence follows three primary trends: (1) balance sheet items tend to be larger and take longer to settle, (2) there are more interactions among items, and (3) the final settlement amounts are more uncertain.

Description: Papers: Does Living in a Retirement Village Extend Life Expectancy? The case of Whiteley Village in the UK. – Les Mayhew, Ben Rickayzen and David Smith, Ph.D. – City University, London Health and Social Care Analysis Regarding the State of Canadian Women Living in the Alone Stage of Retirement – Douglas Andrews, FSA, FCIA, Ph.D.; Lori Curtis, Ph.D. – University of Waterloo

Description: Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) include the social and physical conditions in which people are born, live and work on a daily basis. This project advances a growing body of literature to inform the ongoing optimization of population health and payment models.