Description: Panelists discuss the methods HMOs employ to measure their providers' quality of care, outcomes, compliance with best practice guidelines, and cost control. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 2.

Description: Presenter offers ways in which actuaries might set credibility levels to be used by underwriters to set group health insurance expected benefits. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: A discussion of the possible effort required and impacts resulting from the implementation of C3 Phase II for establishing risk-based capital for variable annuities. This article will describe practical considerations gleaned from actual valuation calculations recently performed by a consulting firm.

Description: Comparison of healthcare costs for early retirees versus active workers in the same age band. When adjusted for age, there is not a significant difference in costs between each group.

Description: Identifies current trends and considerations when setting the mortality improvement assumption for individual life insurance in the US.

Description: An Overview of Stochastic Simulation modeling techniques and usages

Description: The author recommends the use of "minimally destructive scenarios" as part of an ORSA process, in order to deal with cognitive bias that can occur in risk decision-making. Part of the essay collection "Risk Metrics for Decision Making and ORSA"

Description: Panelists discuss the process and challenges presented by mergers or acquisitions. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: By necessity, attributions of financial processes require approximations. Tools used for approximations include Aumann-Shapley, time step, step-through, average step-through, partial derivative, and average partial derivative. Significantly non-linear paths can cause problems during attribution. Time (theta) and market factors must be handled concurrently. Typically contractual factors can be handled separately. Average Step-Through, Aumann-Shapley and Aumann-Shapley-3 points perform the best given the same time period. Attribution should be done with fairly small time steps as opposed to using a lot of points in the Aumann-Shapley calculation, but using Aumann-Shapley-3 points as a last step has some advantages.

Description: We highlight a new approach leveraging predictive analytics to identify high risk and rising risk opioid users for more effective screening and follow-up care.