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Additional Session Information Released for Academy’s Annual Meeting
The Academy this week released new details for the educational sessions at its Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum, Nov. 12-13 in Washington. The sessions will offer public policy and professionalism content relevant to all actuarial areas of practice, and practice-specific content on topical casualty, health, life, pension practice, and professionalism issues. Uniquely positioned and knowledgeable subject matter experts leading the sessions will include congressional and federal agency representatives, leaders of the NAIC and of the U.S. actuarial profession. Stay tuned for further announcements as speakers are added. Session topics will include:
Climate change risk, cybersecurity threats, price optimization, the changing personal auto insurance market, and the public policy implications surrounding those issues. Health care and the 2016 elections, updates on Affordable Care Act implementation, payment and delivery system reform, and long-term care. The latest on life insurance regulation reforms, including a hypothetical look at “Day 1” of principle-based reserving (PBR) taking effect, professionalism issues related to PBR, and new requirements for AXXX/XXX captive arrangements. Implications of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act, new reform efforts, and an examination of public plan funding and risk disclosure issues. Lessons from the first year of Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) report implementation, and developments and trends in international solvency and capital standards. A focus on cross-practice ethics issues, including discussion of new Academy research about perceptions of the ethical challenges facing the profession. A discussion led by the Public Interest Committee of the sustainability of public programs/systems with agency stakeholders who can provide deeper insights into sustainability issues.
The agenda will enable attendees to earn up to 10 organized activity continuing education (CE) credits (depending on area of practice), 1.5 hours of business CE credits, and 2.4 hours of professionalism CE credits. This will all take place in a festive and fascinating celebration of the Academy’s 50th anniversary this year. Discount registrations are available through Aug. 31; click here for a look at the expanded meeting agenda.
Academy Election Update
Please be on the lookout for an email next week from Intelliscan, our election vendor, in advance of the formal election notice. This email will come from electionadmin@intelliscaninc.net, and will give you a chance to add this to your safe-senders list. Don’t forget to check your junk mail folder to make sure you receive it. We encourage you to take part in electing the newest leaders of the Academy who will help us fulfill our mission to serve the public and the U.S. actuarial profession.
Academy Presents at the NAIC Summer Meeting
Academy volunteers gave multiple presentations at the NAIC’s summer national meeting in Chicago, which got under way with actuarial task force meetings on Thursday but begins officially on Saturday.
Mary D. Miller, Academy president, accompanied by Tricia Matson, chairperson of the Actuarial Standards Board, and Nancy Behrens, a member of the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline (ABCD), gave updates today to NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) and Health Actuarial Task Force (HATF), with specific reference to life and health practice issues of interest to regulators. Matson briefed them on actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) under development or revision. Behrens summarized the activities of the ABCD with respect to practice issues, noting particularly that there has been a welcome increase in the number of regulators bringing requests for guidance to them, demonstrating that the ABCD is offering a vehicle for discussion and communication with regulators on practice matters of concern to them. Miller provided an update on the development of the Academy’s online U.S. Qualification Standards Attestation Form that the Academy had previously exposed substantively to regulators and the membership. She will demonstrate the prototype tomorrow at the regulator-only breakfast the Academy will host, as it has for several years.
Activities by volunteers representing the Academy from the Life Practice Council:
Richard Daillak and Mary Bahna-Nolan addressed NAIC Life Actuarial (A) Task Force at the NAIC Summer 2015 National Meeting. Daillak, chairperson of the Life Reinsurance Work Group, presented on Treatment of Yearly Renewable Term reinsurance in Stochastic Exclusion Ratio Testing. Bahna-Nolan, vice president for life issues, discussed the topic of accelerated underwriting. John MacBain provided an update on activities of the Life Products Committee’s Nonforfeiture Modernization Work Group to LATF.
Activities by volunteers representing the Academy from the Health Practice Council:
Shari Westerfield, vice chairperson of the Health Practice Council, gave an overview of recent Academy health activities. Westerfield noted that in addition to the Academy’s work with the NAIC on long-term care (LTC) issues, the Academy has groups working on papers related to LTC financing reform, Medicare@50, and health care delivery and payment reforms. Al Schmitz, co-chairperson of the LTC Principle Based Reserve Work Group, gave an update on model description, objectives, and results. Brad Spenney, chairperson of the Cancer Claim Cost Table Work Group, gave an update on the data collection, the choice of a graduation method, and next steps for completing the project. Warren Jones, chairperson of the LTC Terminations Work Group, gave an overview of LTC intercompany experience data, the granularity of their analysis, and the mortality selection. Karl Volkmar, chairperson of the LTC Credibility Monograph Work Group, reviewed the group’s objective and progress toward completion of the final monograph.
Look for additional coverage of the NAIC meeting in next week’s issue, in Academy Alerts, and in the August Actuarial Update.
Newly Released
The August issue of HealthCheck, released this week, covers the Academy’s Medicare@50 series, which marked the federal health care program’s 50th anniversary at the end of July; and the Medicare Subcommittee’s annual issue brief, Medicare’s Financial Condition: Beyond Actuarial Balance, which offers a long-term actuarial perspective on Medicare’s long-term financial status. Also, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight announced plans to delay publication of preliminary estimates of payments and charges for the risk-corridor program under the ACA, and Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello was quoted regarding Medicare’s recent 50th anniversary in a story that received widespread distribution.
Public Policy Activities
Upcoming Events
Post-NAIC Webinar Set for Aug. 27: Join the Life Practice Council on Aug. 27 for a webinar reviewing the NAIC’s summer national meeting, which is taking place this weekend in Chicago. Presenters will include Mary Bahna-Nolan, the Academy’s vice president for life issues; Philip Barlow, associate commissioner of the District of Columbia Department of Insurance Securities & Banking’s Insurance Bureau; and Michael Boerner, director of the Actuarial Office at the Texas Department of Insurance. Dave Neve, chairperson, Life Reserves Work Group, will moderate. Click here for more information. VM-20 Seminar Coming Next Month: Learn all about VM-20 and PBR at “Vrmm, Vrmm, VM-20—Start Your Engines, The Race to the PBR Finish Line Is On!” This seminar will offer practical examples of how to implement new life principle-based reserve requirements. Sessions will outline the basics of performing a VM-20 calculation—ideal for those with little to no understanding of the VM-20 requirements—as well as complex VM-20 requirements and strategies to successfully implement VM-20. The seminar, to be held Sept. 2 in Boston, follows the 2015 Valuation Actuary Symposium, also in Boston. Register Now for Webinar on International Health Care Cost Drivers: Health care cost growth is a global issue. Exploring comparative experience with health care cost trends and the drivers of cost increases worldwide is the objective of a 2015 webinar series jointly sponsored by the Academy’s Health Practice International Committee and the International Actuarial Association Health Section. Join us Sept. 2 for the third webinar in this series, which will provide a unique opportunity to learn about the successes and challenges Australia and Singapore have experienced as they have worked to identify and address cost drivers. A Nov. 4 series webinar will focus on Canada and Chile; stay tuned for further details. Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar Set for September: The 2015 Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar (CLRS) and Workshops, jointly sponsored by the Academy and the Casualty Actuarial Society, will be held Sept. 9-11 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta. Attend the 2015 CLRS to learn from expert analysis of innovation in reserving. For more information on attendee registration, please email arc@casact.org or visit the CLRS website. The 2015 Life and Health Qualifications Seminar will be held Nov. 9-12 in Arlington, Va. (metropolitan Washington), just prior to the Academy’s Annual Meeting in Washington. Click here for registration information. P/C Opinion Seminar Planned for Philadelphia: Actuaries who prepare or sign NAIC annual statement actuarial opinions on property/casualty loss reserves, or those who assist in preparing them, should plan to attend the Academy’s 2015 Seminar on P/C Effective Loss Reserve Opinions, Dec. 1-2 in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
In the News
Inside Health Insurance Exchanges ran a subscriber-only story on the Academy’s recent health care issue brief, Drivers of 2016 Health Insurance Premium Changes, which included a Q-and-A with Individual and Small Group Markets Committee member David Shea. The National Law Review cited the issue brief in its Health Care Law Update. The issue brief also was cited by Strategic Health Care, Navigant Health Care, and AHIP Coverage. A Modern Healthcare story about the announcement by CMS that the release of data on the ACA’s risk-corridor program will be delayed quoted Cathy Murphy-Barron, Academy vice president for health issues, who said, “CMS has never collected any of this data before” and that “any time you deal with data, it takes longer than you think.” The story was also picked up by Business Insurance.
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