Description: During the past few years, performance, cost, and risk trends for Medigap products have undergone substantial changes. Some of these trends could ease cost pressures on Medigap insurers, while others might increase them. Part 1 of this Issue Brief article discusses current changing trends and considerations around about how they are impacting Medigap.

Description: This article is an update on the No Surprises Act, which is a U.S. Act aimed to reduce the risk that a person unexpectedly receives out of network charges for their health care visits.

Description: Discover the key components of value-based care (VBC) contracts and their impact on provider credibility. Learn about benchmarks, measurement period results, and the unique challenges providers face in managing insurance risk. Gain insights into reducing costs and aligning financial incentives in the US healthcare market.

Description: Derek Ray shares his excitement on serving as Chair of the Health Section Council in 2024, including recent section achievements, upcoming activities and a call to action for volunteers to contribute their expertise to the SOA.

Description: This is a book review of 'What Healthy People Know by Dr. Bob Gleeson, a book focusing on the seven things that healthy people do to say healthy and live long. The reviewer relates these activities to the actuarial career.

Description: This article summarizes a recent session at an SOA meeting that presented tips on improving and speeding the product filing process.

Description: Critical Illness (CI) insurance in Asia has evolved through data-driven insights, adapting to changing medical, demographic, and lifestyle trends. Gen Re’s CI Data Insights Study, covering Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, highlights how advances in screening, especially for cancers, have influenced incidence rates and claims. Regular updates to CI definitions and product structures are essential for sustainability, as seen in the handling of thyroid and prostate cancers. Lifestyle factors like BMI also impact cardiovascular risk. A multi-dimensional approach combining robust data monitoring, proactive product updates, and wellness promotion ensures CI insurance remains relevant and sustainable.

Description: Comparison of domestic and international PFML programs

Description: In this paper we propose a model that can be used to analyze correlated claims data. In the process we introduce a class of multivariate generalized Poisson distributions. Then we present posterior distributions of its parameters. These distributions are difficult to manipulate, so we employ Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to draw random numbers from posteriors and predictive distributions. We present a collection of EXCEL VBA functions and subroutines to perform the simulations.

Description: This paper explores how health care complexity challenges us to expand our repertoire of actuarial methods—and even recast our trend driver paradigm—in order to do our jobs better and maintain our credibility.