The Casualty Practice Council, Health Practice Council, Life Practice Council, and Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council sent comments to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) on its Financial Condition (E) Committee questionnaire that examines the reasons for single-state solutions to help regulators develop a process for creating a uniform framework for state-based regulation.

The Medicaid Subcommittee sent a comment letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on proposed rules about Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Programs; Medicaid managed care, CHIP delivered in managed care, Medicaid and CHIP comprehensive quality strategies, and revisions related to third party liability.

The Medicare Subcommittee released an issue brief, “Medicare’s Financial Condition: Beyond Actuarial Balance,” on significant concerns about Medicare’s long-term financial health.

The Academy updated its Essential Elements reports on Medicare’s Long-Term Sustainability Challenge and Securing Social Security with information from the newly released 2015 Medicare and Social Security trustees reports. The Essential Elements series is designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues clearer to general audiences.

The Individual Disability Tables Work Group (IDTWG) provided this memo to responses received on the “The Individual Disability Valuation Standard Report of the Joint American Academy of Actuaries/Society of Actuaries Individual Disability Tables Work Group” (the “Report”). This memo summarizes the comments and responses.

The Academy's Health Practice International Committee released an issue brief exploring current wellness initiatives, highlighting four international case studies.

The Health Care Cost Work Group published an issue brief addressing health care cost growth in Medicare by providing a framework for understanding and evaluating the options for reforming Medicare and their potential effects on cost growth, quality of care, and access to care.

The Health Practice Council (HPC) published an issue brief that examines the approaches included in various proposals that policymakers are considering before the Supreme Court decision in King v. Burwell. The court could decide that federal premium subsidies are not available for individual market plans in states participating in the federally facilitated marketplace.

The Health Solvency Work Group submitted a comment letter to the NAIC's Investment Risk-Based Capital Working Group on the evaluation of asset risk factors for the health risk-based capital formula.

The Risk Sharing Work Group submitted comments to CCIIO on the methodology proposed to evaluate the sufficiency of EDGE server data.

Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello submitted written testimony to the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health for its hearing on alternatives to the individual and employer mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The Risk Sharing Work Group submitted a letter to CMS with comments on the 2014 medical loss ratio (MLR) annual reporting form.

The Long-Term Care Terminations Work Group presented an update to the NAIC’s Long-Term Care Actuarial Working Group on progress made in developing a recommendation on LTC terminations and next steps. The Long-Term Care Principle-Based Work Group offered an update on developing a principle-based approach model and a timeline for completion, and the Long-Term Care Credibility Monograph Work Group presented its progress in drafting a monograph that addresses long-term care credibility.

The Individual and Small Group Market Task Force published an issue brief examining how the rules applying to groups sized 51-100 will change with the Affordable Care Act's scheduled expansion of the definition of small employers to those with up to 100 employees and what that will mean for insurance offerings in the small group market. Read the news release on the issue brief here.

In a Feb. 24 letter to Secretary Burwell, the Health Practice Council urged HHS to consider implementing measures to counter the potential adverse consequences on health insurance premium rate filings in the event the Supreme Court rules for the petitioners in King v. Burwell. Read the news release.