Description: Actuarial functions are being asked to do more with less: being challenged to provide more value to the business through applying insight and foresight. This article examines ways in which actuaries can provide business insights with very limited investment. The article provides actionable steps that actuaries easily apply to their daily work.

Description: Healthcare risk adjustment methodologies have become increasingly complex, largely due to the belief that complexity enhances accuracy. However, a disconnect exists between how healthcare risk is assessed and how payments are adjusted. This article explores the stark difference between measuring the accuracy of a risk assessment model at a member level, and that of a risk adjustment mechanism at the health plan level. I show that a highly simplified approach that does not use diagnosis codes can have similar accuracy on risk adjusted payments to models that do. These findings suggest that accuracy is not a barrier to developing simpler risk adjustment methodologies, which can improve payment accuracy and reduce the financial incentive for coding diagnoses.

Description: This interview with Andrés Villegas, an Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney, explores his journey from Colombia to Australia, his research on mortality modeling, and his contributions like the R package StMoMo. He discusses the importance of mentorship, industry-academia collaboration, and the role of actuaries in addressing global issues such as population aging and climate risk.

Description: An overview of bias and fairness in machine learning models, as they apply to use cases in life insurance.

Description: Brief discussion on recent published experience studies and RFPs.

Description: Emerging technologies like GenAI will be more disruptive than past technological developments, such as spreadsheets, low-code data and dashboarding tools, and cloud computing. This article will explore how how we can lead ourselves, our teams, and our organizations to thrive within a defined modern value proposition, using one of two archetype roles: actuaries as business partners or actuaries as developers.

Description: As the population and workforce age, it is important to rethink how and when we retire. This article provides a big picture overview of issues related to opening up more options for exit from the labor force and gradual retirement. It reviews developments in the last few years that are important including the growth of gig employment, more remote work, more technology, workforce shortages, and changes in employee benefits that previously were a barrier to gradual retirement. It calls for more focus on adaption to the aging society. Several publications are cited and it includes a reference list.

Description: Critical illness insurance is a popular supplemental health insurance product in the U.S. market. This article discusses how carriers have recently sought to add value by expanded the benefits offered in their critical illness products. Specifically, the article discusses the consumer need and development considerations of adding benefits for autism Spectrum Disorder, Mental health disorders, Specified Disease Coverage, and enhance Cancer Coverage to a critical illness contract.

Description: This article provides an overview and highlights of the recent paper Pension Risk Transfer: Evaluating Impact and Barriers for De-Risking Strategies. The market has evolved dramatically over the past 10 years, and the paper discusses the drivers behind these changes from both the plan sponsor and insurer viewpoints. The research also gathered input from various key stakeholders as to what changes the market could experience in the future.

Description: A brief description of the contents of the July 2022 issue along with are quest for assistance with SOA programming.