Description: Read the October 2019 issues of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities. This is the second digital-only issue of the newsletter.

Description: The collective investment in transforming the life insurance proposition exceeds anything seen in the last thirty years — a working lifetime. As one would expect, reinsurers are playing a major role. The past five years have seen global reinsurers raise the bar on client experience to new levels, while also investing, expanding and re-organizing to support the transformation of the primary insurance industry, and in so doing also their own.

Description: Blockchain technology has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life and overall health of the members of a health system, while also adding to administrative efficiencies. For the first time, we will have access to members’ entire diagnoses and prescription history, consumer behavioral attributes, and other socio-economic determinants which that are valuable inputs to designing appropriate benefits and proper care management plans. Through the blockchain, we will be able to access data not just of the existing members of the health system but also of potential enrollees and new entrants. The data can be accessed by querying the blockchain through a permissioned granted by the member. This information can be very useful in performing feasibility studies for evaluating entry into newer markets and/or newer products, developing customized care plans, and designing efficient value-based contracts. By executing smart contracts on the blockchain, we will be able to achieve administrative efficiencies like never before. The applications of blockchain technology are numerous and ground-breaking. Organizations that do not pay heed to the benefits that blockchain can bring may find themselves left behind as the rest of the industry marches forward in its quest for efficiency and member satisfaction.

Description: MACRA not only impact providers, it will impact the entire healthcare market. MACRA published studies and commentary to date have primarily focused on providers, with the majority of the information addressing the impacts to clinicians. However, our investigation indicates MACRA has far reaching impacts to payers as well as providers. MACRA is impacting each geographic market and line of business in a unique way, and health payers will have multiple strategic decisions to consider given the changing market dynamics.

Description: India is in the process of updating to a more risk-based capital framework. The article provides a high level introduction of the development and discusses some of the key design and implementation considerations.

Description: A worksite voluntary life broker, an actuarial consultant, a reinsurer, and an insurance carrier's national account manager discuss their experience during the recent surge in worksite life sales. The panel will discuss salient product features such as acceleration riders and underwriting concessions, aspects of the worksite market which make life products attractive, and the future trends in the life space for this market.

Description: The presenter will discuss North American actuarial careers. He will provide an overview on actuaries in the United States and Canada, including his personal experiences. He will also discuss supply and demand of actuaries in North America.

Description: Short insights on different innovation and entrepreneurial topics. These come from the Entrepreneurial & Innovation Section's e-bulletin, Innovation Insights.

Description: This article discusses the impact of rising interest rates on annuity writers and life insurers and the risk management challenges it presents. Falling interest rates were addressed as well.

Description: This article argues that using Economic Capital as a metric does not capture all of the risks. The author suggests an alternative that better meets a corporation's overall risk management needs. This is value-based ERM, which is an approach that makes the quantification of enterprise value central to all aspects of the ERM process. It is a combination of two techniques—enterprise risk management and value-based management, and it captures all of the risks in a single metric.