Description: Telehealth continues to be a story of unrealized potential than realized success. Find out what's pushing telehealth forward as a means of remote healthcare and the challenges its facing. Discuss questions, including: - Telehealth's role in expanding access to mental healthcare is clear, but what about other conditions? - Was access expanded for all patients or do modern delivery methods leave some patients behind - How do telehealth costs compare to in-person costs? - What happens to the value proposition if unit cost savings is off the table?

Description: The article provides an overview of the federal tax treatment of long-term care insurance contracts, including a brief history of the tax treatment of long-term care insurance, the requirements that must be satisfied in order to be treated as qualified long-term care insurance under the Internal Revenue Code, and a brief discussion of qualified long-term care combination products and chronic and terminal illness accelerated death benefits offered under life insurance contracts.

Description: The SOA Research Institute Health Care Cost Trends Strategic Research Program and Health Section Council Committees are seeking researchers to compare the intended effects of the ACA and its amendments since the implementation of each provision.

Description: Living benefits (GLWBs) in fixed index annuity products are typically accounted for under SOP03-1 under current GAAP guidance. LDTI requires companies to classify these riders as Market Risk Benefit (MRB). This webcast focuses on challenges and considerations of the MRB implementation. Industry practices of the reserving approach will be shared during this webcast, as well as hedging and pricing implications.

Description: State regulators and the American Academy of Actuaries will present on the latest developments for the future fixed annuity principle-based reserving framework. The presenters will provide an overview of the proposed methodology, as well as updates on regulatory discussions, field testing, the project timeline and outstanding framework elements yet to be determined. By the end of the session, attendees will understand what changes are being made to non-variable annuity reserves, details underlying existing proposals and the anticipated timing of such emerging changes. The session will meet the needs of actuaries focused on annuity reserve calculations, financial reporting and valuation.

Description: After years of discussion and debate, PrinciplesBased Reserving (PBR) is finally a reality. Small insurance companies have a unique opportunity to decide between electing for the company-wide exemption or adopting the PBR methods. This article discusses the benefits and challenges of the options available to small insurers under VM-20 as well as best practices that have been found along the way.

Description: The SOA analyzed Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) claims data from 2009 – 2015 to better understand cost and utilization trends in the commercial health insurance market.

Description: Increasing technology is available to create and disseminate educational resources worldwide. In response, this article advocates creation of open educational resources (OERs) that will benefit the actuarial profession with both recruitment and retention of members. Specifically, we describe OER contributions made at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and more recently through the ASTIN Academy, a working group of ASTIN, the non-life section of the International Actuarial Association. We advocate pushing boundaries and creating new ways of teaching effectively for the future. The innovative use of technology and open-source materials is a way to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in the actuarial profession.

Description: 2021 Life Meeting - Session 8A: Use of Electronic Health Records in the Assessment of Life and Health Risks 9.1.21 Recording

Description: Through the sponsorship of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Society of Actuaries partnered with Wakely to use their health care data to study the effects of COVID-19 on overall health care claims for individuals with a COVID-19 diagnosis. The conclusion of the study is that individuals with COVID-19 claims had significant increases in health care costs leading up to their months of diagnosis, as well as in the months following their diagnosis. These effects were more pronounced for individuals who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as well as for individuals with prior co-morbidities. Finally, the overall health care costs of these members plateaued at significantly higher levels than their pre-COVID baselines. In fact, all the main membership cohorts experienced claim levels that were at least 20% higher than their pre-COVID starting points.