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Recent Academy Activity, May 26–30, 2014

Opportunities to Learn

  • Get answers and build your understanding of the professional requirements for actuarial communications under actuarial standard of practice (ASOP) No. 41 in the next professionalism webinar! Join an interactive dialogue about actuarial communications with the experts. The Council on Professionalism’s June 26 webinar, “Disclosure in the Real World: ASOP No. 41 Case Studies,” will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET. Participants will learn how current actuarial communications requirements apply in practical situations under ASOP No. 41, Actuarial Communications. Featured panelists Patricia Matson, chairperson of the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB), and Al Beer, former ASB chairperson, will present and discuss application of the ASOP and case studies addressing the broad application of ASOP No. 41 in various practice areas. Learn more and register now.
  • Actuaries play a critical role in the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) activities aimed at protecting the retirement incomes of millions of American workers who participate in private-sector defined benefit pension plans. Learn more and get an update on “PBGC: Protecting Pensions & the Role of the Actuary” directly from two senior PBGC staff members in next month’s “Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts” webinar. Senior Pension Fellow Donald Fuerst will moderate the webinar, scheduled for June 30 from noon to 1 p.m. ET. All members are invited to attend. Learn more and register now.

Public Policy Activities

  • “Notwithstanding the recent slowdown in health spending growth, it is crucial to explore options that could help sustain that slowdown and further reduce cost growth,” the latest paper in the Academy’s Essential Elements series says. “What Drives the Growing Cost of Health Care?” takes a high-level view of cost drivers and approaches to lower both the cost and utilization of medical services. The series is designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues more accessible. Read this and other papers in the series on the Academy website.
  • The Social Security Committee released an issue brief analyzing Social Security design changes that would create a defined contribution system within the program for workers to accumulate contributions in individual accounts.
  • The Pension Committee submitted comments to the Society of Actuaries’ Retirement Plans Experience Committee on the RP-2014 and MP-2014 exposure drafts.
  • The C-3 Work Group made a recommendation to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Life-Based Capital Working Group on an approach for updating regulatory risk-based capital requirements for interest rate risk for fixed annuities and single premium life insurance.

Recent Events

  • The Academy’s May 29 “Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts” webinar, “State of Exchanges,” featured presentations from Carrie Banahan, executive director of the Office of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, and Kevin Counihan, CEO of Connecticut’s health exchange, Access Health CT, and was moderated by Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello. Banahan and Counihan provided attendees with a look at the status of state-run health exchanges, notable successes and strains that exchanges have faced, as well as challenges that lie ahead. View the webinar slides.

Academy in the News

  • For Governing magazine’s recent “The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Finance” article, Fuerst explained that public-employee pension plans that are overly optimistic about investment returns are taking on excessive risk. “That means they’re targeting a pension funding level that’s lower than what most people might consider prudent,” he told the magazine, which is producing a series of articles on financial risk aimed at public officials.
  • Uccello highlighted several points of interest for readers of Health Plan Week in the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) May 16 final rule on Affordable Care Act (ACA) risk corridor and reinsurance premium stabilization programs. Uccello pointed to the final rule’s language regarding reinsurance collections and its threshold for CMS to help pay claims costs.
  • Fuerst provided pointers for understanding the required annual funding notices that pension plan participants receive in a column that ran in The Detroit News, The Arizona Daily Star, The Albany Times Union, and The (Medford, Ore.) Mail Tribune.
  • Uccello was quoted in The Redding (Calif.) Record Searchlight, and on LimaOhio.com, regarding the uncertainty insurers face in 2015 rate filings. “Although insurers will have some information regarding the risk profile of their 2014 enrollees, such as their distribution by age and gender, available health status information is still very limited,” she said.
  • The Academy’s call for an increase in Social Security’s normal retirement age was noted in an Israel Foreign Affairs news item explaining the program’s benefits and the challenges posed by increased life expectancy.

Actuarial Standards Board in the News

  • Modern Healthcare’s reporting on a CMS analysis of the “actuarial soundness” of Medicaid managed-care rates and payments noted the ASB’s role in developing guidance on state capitation rates. The exposure draft of the proposed new actuarial standard of practice, Medicaid Managed-Care Capitation Rate Development and Certification, is available on the ASB website. The comment period on this exposure draft closed May 15.

Reminder

  • Academy members are invited to nominate themselves or others for consideration as a candidate to be a regular director on the Academy’s board of directors. Visit the Academy’s online Election Center to submit your nomination.


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