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Recent Academy Activity, April 22–26, 2013

 

Actuaries Rank No. 1 for Best Job

  • CareerCast released its 25th annual Best Jobs report ranking actuaries as the Number One job in the United States. Academy President Cecil Bykerk elaborates on the public service, client satisfaction, and personal fulfillment achieved by actuaries in the CareerCast report.

Volunteer to Broaden and Enrich Your Career and Profession

  • Are you looking for a great way to share and broaden your skills and expertise? Or for more ways to enrich your actuarial career or to increase access to professionalism development opportunities? Join more than 1,000 other Academy members by becoming a volunteer and you can! Academy volunteers make a difference, gain exceptional understanding of issues that affect actuarial work and practice, deepen and expand their actuarial expertise, and make lasting professional and personal connections. Take this quick survey to find out which volunteer opportunity may be right for you!

2013 Member Dues: Pay by May 1 to Avoid Late Fees

  • Please pay your 2013 membership dues by May 1 to avoid a 20 percent late fee. Click here to pay directly on the online payments page. Now is also a good time to ensure your member profile is up to date and take advantage of two members-only benefits: Academy alerts and archived professionalism webinars. Academy alerts are timely online bulletins about legislative and regulatory developments, while archived professionalism webinars potentially provide members with CE credits. To update your profile and access these benefits, log in now.

Now Available: Annual Report of the Actuarial Standards Board

  • The report focuses on the 2012 activities of the ASB including the release of several ASOP exposure drafts, adoption of two final ASOPs, highlights from its annual planning meeting, and its financial summary.

New Public Policy Activities

  • The Rate Review Practice Note Work Group released for comment an addendum to the October 2012 practice note, Actuarial Practices Relating to Preparing, Reviewing, and Commenting on Rate Filings Prepared in Accordance with the Affordable Care Act. Comments on the addendum, which highlights changes to the rate review and disclosure requirements since the initial practice note was finalized, are due June 3. Log in to read the full alert.
  • The Medical Loss Ratio Work Group submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the proposed rule implementing MLR requirements for Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare prescription drug (Part D) programs.
  • The PBR Strategy Subgroup submitted a comment letter to the NAIC Principle-based Reserves (EX) Task Force on its legislative brief that outlines the ramifications of the Standard Valuation Law for state legislatures.

Recent Events

  • The Academy’s Life Practice Council presented an overview of the NAIC Spring 2013 National Meeting and progress on the principle-based approach to life reserves during an April 23 webinar. Presenters also gave updates on the activities of the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force, PBR Implementation (EX) Task Force, Joint Qualified Actuary (A/B/C) Subgroup, and the Emerging Actuarial Issues (E) Working Group. More than 120 registered sites dialed in. Download the presentation slides for free or purchase the audio recording.

Opportunities to Learn

  • June 4, Regulatory Issues for Small Insurance Companies Webinar: Join the Academy and the Society of Actuaries to gain a better understanding of regulators’ thoughts on a variety of topics, including how actuaries can adapt to the new risk-focused exams, whether PBR makes sense for most small companies, how ORSA will help small insurance companies, and more!
  • Nov. 11–14, Life and Health Qualifications Seminar: Expedite the basic education you will need to obtain health and life qualifications under Section 3 of the U.S. Qualification Standards. This seminar is the primary source of instruction to become qualified. Seats are limited!

Actuaries in the News

  • Academy Senior Pension Fellow Don Fuerst tells the online business journal of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Knowledge@Wharton, that comprehensive changes are needed to make Social Security sustainable for the long term. The story, “Saving Social Security: Why New Proposals Are Drawing Fire,” also cites Fuerst discussing potential consequences of proposals to expand means testing.
  • An AISHealth.com subscription-only article reports that Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers are moving toward more tiered or narrowed networks in preparation for the 2014 market, and the Academy’s Vice President for health issues, David Shea, observes that with “all the risk-selection elements and pricing removed from the market, where are carriers going to compete? They’re going to compete on their networks.”

 

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