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 presentation is an open forum from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The panelists, including a member of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors, and a vice president of the largest insurance testing lab, Home Office Reference Lab, discuss new underwriting technologies, including genetic testing, alternative AIDS testing methods, and the legal and other implications. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4A.

Description: Panelelists at this session at the SOA 1998 Maui I Spring Meeting present their thoughts on how life and disability risk assessment and underwriting might be performed in the 21st century. Focus is on how technology can change and speed up the process.

Description: Medical and underwriting experts discuss medical developments and underwriting practices that could improve mortality rates and risk classification, respectively, in the future. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 3.