Description: As the Board member partner assigned to work with the Actuary of the Future Section as of March 2005, I am reporting to you about several topics that may interest the section membership for this newsletter. Many of you have already received a lot of information and/or have read articles about the strategic plan, the image campaign, the reorganization of the SOA by sections versus practice areas and other large efforts underway at the SOA. There are many other things going on that are exciting, so I will focus on sharing other issues with you that may be less well known.

Description: This article describes the Health Insurance Providers Fee implemented through Section 9010 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and discusses how the fee will creates challenges in Managed Medicaid Rate development. It also offers some suggested ways to include the fee in Managed Medicaid rates.

Description: Article Description * “Agile” development is all the buzz in the IT world. You may have heard your IT teams talk about scrums, sprints, and the war room and wondered if they were playing a strange new sport. Or perhaps you are already applying agile techniques in your product development. This article will discuss what agile methodology is, pros and cons, and how you might apply it to insurance product development.

Description: Overview of market trends impacting the group benefits space in Canada and the implications for insures as they prepare for future evolving industry dynamics.

Description: Discusses the evolving role of technology within the actuarial profession and the current use of electronic bulletin boards on the internet.

Description: This essay, submitted for the Society of Actuaries' Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section 2010 Papers Competition, proposes an entrepreneurial solution to address the continued, unsustainable increases in health care costs. Under the author’s plan, entrepreneurs will “develop systems providing clear financial motivation for consumers to make decisions that minimize health care spending and maximize positive health outcomes. In so doing, health care providers must necessarily compete to offer the highest quality services at the lowest cost. By relying on the financial self-interest of consumers and free-market competition among health care providers, effective and sustainable systems to bend the health care cost curve can be achieved.”

Description: By relating to his own experience, Steven Chin reveals the meaning of networking and how it can affect one's life. His advice helps guide us on how to interact in a business setting and find mentorship within and outside the actuarial community.

Description: An article provides a look at traveling overseas for actuarial work. Questions, concerns and tips for consideration in accepting an overseas assignment.

Description: Reviews the book, HMOs and the Politics of Health System Reform, by Joseph Falkson which discusses HMOs' legislative and regulatory structuring.

Description: Preparing an effective actuarial memorandum in support of the health actuarial opinion.