Description: This presentation from Session 20PD of the SOA 1996 Orlando Annual Meeting examines the major trends in insurance laboratory testing from 1980 to 1985, with an emphasis on why blood testing thresholds were lowered dramatically in the mid-1980s and why those thresholds will persist into the next century. The value of liver function testing is examined as a case study in protective value. Issues addressed include: 1. What is the real impact of human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]-1 testing [sentinel effect]? 2. The unique pay-offs from liver function tests, 3. Clinical medicine mortality versus underwritten mortality: overcoming problems caused by different perspectives, and 4. Cotinine pays the freight? From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 22, No. 3.

Description: This article is based on a presentation made by the author at the Spring 2005 meeting of the Society of Actuaries. In a survey conducted in early 2005, many managers of simplified underwriting programs said that they were upgrading or testing products utilizing new underwriting tools. This article discusses the survey and lessons to be learned.

Description: Presented at May 2005 Spring Meeting. This session explores new underwriting criteria, including the following topics: What's new in simplified underwriting, Speed to decision, Electronic databases, Teleunderwriting, Prescription drug underwriting, Results analysis, Implementation.