The Life Reserves Work Group submitted a comment letter regarding credited amounts for indexed accounts in the calculation of the Deterministic Reserve (DR), outlined in amendment proposal form (APF) 2018-44 to the Life Actuarial (A) Task Force. 

Academy Pension Vice President Josh Shapiro submitted a comment letter to U.S. House leaders on The Retirement, Savings, and Other Tax Relief Act of 2018.

The Intersector group released the notes of its April 2018 meeting with the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service. 

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee submitted comments on the October guidance from the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services on State Relief and Empowerment Waivers under Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act, focusing on three areas: evaluation of coverage comprehensiveness and affordability, evaluation of coverage, and waiver funding.

The Health Practice Council submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to its request for comments on proposed rules pertaining to the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, including provisions to revise the risk adjustment data validation (RADV) payment error calculation methodology and process.

The Health Practice Employee Benefits Committee and Individual and Small Group Market Committee submitted comments on the proposed rule regarding Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), that would create two new types of HRAs—Integrated HRAs and Excepted Benefit HRAs—which would allow employers to provide HRAs that could be used to pay for individual plan premiums and out-of-pocket health costs.

The Non-Guaranteed Elements Work Group submitted a comment letter outlining their proposal for a NAIC life insurance online guide landing page. 

The Retirement System Assessment and Policy Committee submitted a comment letter to Congress on the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2018. 

The Academy published a new Essential Elements paper, Big Data, Big Changes for Insurance and Pensions, highlighting the opportunities and challenges that rapidly evolving advancements in data analysis and storage pose for insurers, consumers, and regulators. Essential Elements is a series designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues clearer to general audiences.

The SVL Interest Rate Modernization Work Group provided an update to the Life Actuarial (A) Task Force on the modernizing the process of setting valuation interest rates for all non-variable annuities.

Long-Term Care Valuations Work Group chairperson, Warren Jones, presented an update to the NAIC's Long-Term Care Actuarial Working Group on the progress of the groups activities.

The PBR Governance Work Group provided an update to the Life Actuarial (A) Task Force on the Academy’s involvement with principle-based reserves.

The Reinsurance Work Group gave a presentation to the Life Actuarial (A) Task Force on potential issues relating to VM-20 Credit for Reinsurance.

The Annuity Reserves Work Group provided an update to the Life Actuarial (A) Task Force on their recommended changes to VM-22.

Academy Past President Mary D. Miller sent comments to the NAIC on CASTF’s draft 3-year experience proposal.

The Academy released a research study, Estimating the Potential Health Care Savings of Reference Pricing, which explores the possibility of using reference pricing to address health care costs, and builds upon existing research by estimating the impact of expanding reference pricing to a broader set of health care services.

The Long-Term Care Past Losses Considerations Work Group has developed this issue brief to identify issues commonly raised in favor of and against recoupment of past losses in various situations.

The Solvency Committee submitted comments to the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on the Common Framework for the Supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups (ComFrame) public consultation document dated July 31, 2018.