Description: This article provides an overview of behavioral economic theory as it relates to health and welfare insurance plans and provides summaries of two sample applications of the theories: enrollment in health insurance exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and product design considerations in light of vast health illiteracy.

Description: To inform and educate stakeholders for health plans and insurers on novel ways to optimize reinsurance structures to meet capital related goals and boost RBC and liquidity ratios. In lieu of traditional market-based financial instruments involving equity and/or debt, a quota share transaction can be used with potentially far more attractive terms and achieving essentially the same result.

Description: In this webcast, we will overview the recent trends in the pension landscapes, as well as discuss investment solutions that assist with navigation through volatile market conditions. Learn more about the challenges that investors face now, as well as in the past. If you're ready to dive into the issues of investing during a period of inflation, monetary tightening and turbulent financial markets, then join us and discover more about what's going on in the pension and retirement industries.

Description: As results emerged showing the influence of COVID-19 on recent mortality, the Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program Steering Committee (MLPSC) began to ponder what it means for the future. Was the coronavirus pandemic just a temporary shock to U.S. mortality with mortality quickly returning to prepandemic levels upon its conclusion or a lingering factor in future U.S. mortality from the potential occurrence of new coronavirus variants, post-COVID-19 conditions (“long COVID”), deferral of needed health care treatment, a fatigued health care system and other elements? Only time will provide the answers to these questions.

Description: What role do retirement accounts and insurance products play in wealth inequality pre- and post-bankruptcy in Washington, DC, in 2011?

Description: This article discusses how risk management was a central element in the conduct of monetary policy in the United States as espoused by then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan .

Description: Traditional predictive tools are not built to deal with the variability the world currently faces. The COVID-19 pandemic amounts to a prolonged black swan event, for which one must look past conventional assessments to arrive at any level of confident predictions. Behavioral analysis factors for biases and heuristics designed specifically for uncertain evolutionary contexts, and which are the primary drivers of market participants’ decisions at present. Through understanding the most likely behaviors of individuals, it becomes possible to arrive at an aggregate understanding of market outcomes.

Description: CMS has required hospitals to publish their chargemaster rates, cash discounts and negotiated rates as of January 1, 2021. Our panel is comprised of a data strategist, an executive from a large hospital system and an actuary.

Description: "Most patients enter the health care system through their primary care provider or through the Emergency Room or an Urgent Care Center. How an emergency room is structured, managed, and provides care is one of the major forces impacting the total cost of care. Yet it is often an after-thought and ignored by both health plans and health systems. In reality, the structured introduction of efficient practices can substantially reduce the quantity and cost of health care services. Further explore useful information to better understand and see how there are still substantial opportunities for improvement."

Description: Risk management techniques do not include system science. System science requires that the uncertainty of the world is incorporated into the results. The articles explains the difference between risk and uncertainty. Learn how risk practices create an overoptimistic view of future outcomes.