The Academy’s Cyber Risk Task Force sent a letter offering its assistance in relation to the challenges and opportunities present in the current system of regulating and overseeing responses to cyber breaches of personally identifiable information along with a copy of its report, Cyber Breach Reporting Requirements: An Analysis of Laws Across the United States, to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the directors (or acting directors) of the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes; the Federal Insurance Office; the Office of Domestic Finance; and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Senior Casualty Fellow Rich Gibson participated in a virtual panel discussion Monday at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Executive Committee Task Force on insurance regarding business interruption coverage. Gibson provided a perspective on actuarial considerations important to the success of any future public or private program designed to support coverage.

The Health Practice Council submitted a comment letter to the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), on review of agency actions related to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, as put forward in a recent presidential executive order. The letter provides references to previous Academy comment letters to agencies regarding relevant proposed rules.

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee and the Active Benefits Subcommittee submitted comments to the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), on insurance and health plan coverage of COVID-19 testing, as put forward in a presidential executive order, Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and Other Biological Threats.

The Life Practice Council's Variable Annuity (VA) Reserves and Capital Work Group released an exposure draft of its VM-21 Practice Note Supplement, Implementation of Requirements for Principle-Based Reserves for Variable Annuities – 2021 Edition of VM-21. The comments on the exposure draft are due to the Academy by April 30, 2021, and can be sent to lifeanalyst@actuary.org. 

Academy President Tom Campbell sent a letter of recommendation to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Annette James, chairperson of the Academy’s Health Equity Work Group, as a candidate for appointment to the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force as put forward in a presidential executive order, Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery.

The ERM/ORSA Climate Risk Disclosures Work Group Chair, Michelle Young, and Academy Assistant Director for Research, Steve Jackson, shared an update to the NAIC Climate Risk and Resiliency (EX) Task Force on the Climate Risk Disclosures Survey Analysis project.

The Long-Term Care Reform Subcommittee's COVID-19 Work Group released their issue brief on COVID-19’s potential short-term and long-term impacts on long-term care insurance (LTCI), focusing on key actuarial and economic assumptions impacting standalone LTCI policies. Read the news release.

The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting (COPLFR) released the practice note, Statements of Actuarial Opinion on P/C Loss Reserves (2020), which includes discussion regarding changes in the NAIC Annual Statement Instructions—Property/Casualty (NAIC Annual Statement Instructions) regarding the Actuarial Opinion, the Actuarial Opinion Summary, and Actuarial Report, as well as  COVID-19 considerations.

The Solvency Committee submitted comments to the Federal Insurance Office regarding its Study on the Insurance Capital Standard (ICS).

The Casualty Practice Council filed comments on the Actuarial Standards Board exposure draft, Using Models Outside the Actuary's Expertise (Property and Casualty).

The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting issued an updated and expanded set of questions and answers concerning the impact of COVID-19 on p/c financial reporting. This supercedes the first edition, published in June 2020.

The Health Solvency Subcommittee sent a comment letter in response to a request from the NAIC’s Health Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group providing additional detail regarding the potential investment income adjustment factor for Health H2 Experience Fluctuation Risk.

The ERM/ORSA Committee's Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (CRFD) Work Group submitted comments to the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on its Application Paper on the Supervision of Climate-related Risks in the Insurance Sector. 

The Academy's Cyber Risk Task Force responded to the U.S. Treasury Department's questions about the applicability of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in cases of cyber-attacks that are aimed at targets outside the U.S. but cause insured losses in the U.S. The task force also noted the potential difficulty of meeting TRIA's requirement for an official finding that  the source of an attack was a non-governmental terrorist organization.

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee and its Risk Sharing Subcommittee submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the Proposed Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2022.

The Intersector Group released its notes of a November 2020 conference call with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

The Life Practice Council's Life Underwriting and Risk Classification Work Group sent a letter to the NAIC Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee on state regulatory and legislative actions in regards to life insurance underwriting implications of COVID-19. 

The Health Solvency Subcommittee submitted a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Health Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group to provide analysis to incorporate investment income into the existing underwriting risk factors within the health risk-based capital formula.

The Public Plans Committee published an issue brief considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public pension plans.