Description: The devastation wrought by opioid related deaths is national news. This article looks at the details behind the statistics.

Description: The SOA is pleased to make available a research report providing insight and considerations for the actuarial profession in assessing the potential risk and opportunities of MACRA to both provider and payer organizations.

Description: This document is a Request for Proposals (RFP) outlining a proposal request on the impact of the U.S. drug abuse epidemic on mortality, focusing on opioids. It provides details on the background, purpose, research objectives, proposal requirements, selection process, and conditions for submitting a proposal.

Description: The Health Care Cost Trends Strategic Research Committee is looking for research proposals to study the impact of Artificial Intelligence on any of the following elements of healthcare • Evaluate the impact on predictability of financial results • Evaluate the impact on the efficiency of care management techniques applied to members • Compare results to traditional risk adjustment and traditional methodologies of predictive analytics • Determine an overall financial impact of applying AI to identify these high cost claimants.

Description: Internal audit (IA) projects typically focus on evaluating the risks and operational effectiveness of a company’s technological, regulatory/compliance, and/or financial processes and procedures. Because LDTI and IFRS 17 compliance will require extensive rewiring of existing and possibly the implementation of new processes and procedures to comply with the new accounting requirements, IA will be critical in conducting the initial risk assessment of these changes, monitoring of the process changeover, and conducting a post-implementation validation after conversion. Explore many specific areas that will be impacted, highlight those aspects likely to be under the IA magnifying glass, and find out how you can best prepare your IA teams to understand the changes and expedite the testing timeframes of their audits. By attending the session, you will be able to: • Understand general IA testing approach and framework. • Identify and address the key processes and procedures likely to be impacted by accounting change. • Build a communication plan that tailors the level of detail of documentation to the intended audience. (e.g., Leadership and BOD) • Document decisions made and implemented with IA in mind.

Description: In the game of chess, both players have perfect knowledge of the board. In poker, however, players deal with asymmetric information as well as the fact that your opponent can lie. There is an old expression that smart people are “playing chess when their opponents are playing checkers.” However, playing chess when your opponent is playing poker is a recipe for disaster (for the chess player, that is). Parameter risk is more akin to poker than chess, and it is often overlooked in favor of volatility risk in stop loss and reinsurance pricing. Unlike volatility risk, however, parameter risk does not necessarily decrease as the group size increases. Understanding the impact of parameter risk can help avoid mispricing the risk at hand as well as the impulse to provide false precision. False precision can lead to poor underwriting decisions and financial losses. In this session, the presenters will provide examples of parameter risk as well as potential solutions to incorporate when building simulation models. By attending this session you will be able to recognize potential areas of parameter risk and understand techniques to incorporate parameter risk in simulation modeling.

Description: In the time since the original proposal to move healthwriting companies from the blue blank to the orange blank, there have been several incremental updates to the blue blank by the NAIC Blanks Working Group to integrate portions of the orange blank into the blue blank. Meanwhile, the NAIC RBC Working Group has issued their proposal to change the health test for comment and appear to be moving forward with the proposal to revise the health test. This would obligate companies that write predominantly health business onto the orange blank rather than the blue blank, which they have historically used for reporting. Discover background of the revised health test, the incremental updates to the blue blank that have been implemented recently, additional incremental updates proposed for upcoming blue blanks, and the current status of the Health RBC Working Group proposal to revise the health test. Hear observations about companies that have opted to 'take the plunge' and move to the orange blank ahead of the revised health test as well as companies that have opted to remain on the blue blank and incrementally update as new requirements are integrated into the Blue blank. By attending the session, you will be able to: • Understand the context of the initiative to revise the NAIC health test. • Summarize the recent changes to the blue blank implemented by the Blanks Working Group that integrate portions of the orange blank into the blue blank. • Summarize the upcoming proposed changes to the blue blank by the Blanks Working Group that integrate additional portions of the orange blank into the blue blank. • Summarize the current status of the Health RBC Working Group proposal to revise the health test. • Provide industry perspective on companies that have opted to move to the orange blank ahead of the revised health test and companies that have opted to remain on the blue blank until the NAIC requires it.

Description: The rules governing the framework of Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces continue to be refined at the state and federal level. The catalyst for such changes has been a desire to improve markets, which has been primarily informed by data and experience in the ACA's first decade. This session will feature a panel of consulting actuaries, a state policy advisor who has influenced ACA legislation, and an attorney deeply involved in ACA risk adjustment litigation. Discussion will include new federal proposals, efforts to strengthen enforcement of rating compliance, new actuarial insights from public data, and the anticipated future implications for ACA markets. By attending this session, you will be able to: • Understand what precipitated risk adjustment lawsuits and how proposed federal rules address these concerns. • Identify how state regulators are addressing premium misalignment between metal levels and shaping local policies. • Develop new insights on publicly available data. • Understand the implications these policy changes will have on the future of pricing health insurance benefits, consumer value and enrollment distributions in ACA marketplaces. • Understand the primary factors leading to ACA market success.

Description: Review recent incidence trends based on incidence data from 2005 to 2015. Examine proposed modifiers with IDIVT 2013 incidence tables and its impact on active life reserves. By attending this session, you will be able to: • Understand how your company experience compares vs. Industry. • Identify potential LDTI impacts based on industry experience. • Develop incidence modifiers for pricing and projections based on industry experience.

Description: Currently there are ten states in the U.S. —Rhode Island, California, New Jersey, New York, Washington, DC; Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon and Colorado —that have enacted Paid Family Leave. Paid Family leave is an employee funded state insurance program that provides wage replacement to eligible workers when they take time off of work to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a new child. Who pays the taxes? The employer or the employee? How will this effect short term disability benefit offerings in the work place? How does a Paid Family Leave plan get implemented? Is it up to the employee to file for the benefit through the unemployment office or does the employer file? At the state level, how is paid family leave reserved for? How is it administered? What job protections are there? How does this work with the Family Medical Leave Act? Get these and more questions answered. By attending this session, you should have an understanding of the state Paid Family Leave programs, what it means to future short term disability plans, and how the state accounts for this program.