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HPC Holds Annual ‘Hill Visits’ With Federal Lawmakers, Policymakers
Health Practice Council (HPC) volunteers and Academy staff virtually visited the offices of federal policymakers, regulators, and other key constituencies this week in the annual health “Hill visits,” discussing a number of timely topics highlighting the HPC’s 2022 priorities including health equity; COVID-19 and the implications for health care utilization and spending; insurance coverage; long-term care; Medicare sustainability; payment and delivery reform; and climate change and health.
Roughly two dozen volunteers took part in about 20 meetings with U.S. House and Senate leadership and committee staff members, and with representatives from the White House and key federal agencies including the U.S. Treasury Department, Labor Department, the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Government Accountability Office. They offered the Academy’s perspective on a variety of health issues and heard from staff about congressional and federal agency legislative and regulatory priorities in a midterm election year.
Issue brief released: The HPC also released a new issue brief, Implications of Hospital Price Transparency on Hospital Prices and Price Variation, which examines factors of price transparency on consumers and insurance payers.
Leadership Series Celebrates Women in Actuarial Leadership
 In conjunction with Women’s History Month, the presidents of the five U.S. actuarial associations-including Academy President Maryellen Coggins-participated in a Wednesday online forum, “Celebrating Women in Actuarial Leadership: A Panel Discussion,” in which they talked and took questions about the evolution of women in the actuarial profession and offered advice and experience to attendees. The event was hosted by the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (CCA) as part of their leadership series, which posted the video on its website.
Panelists talked about women achieving career goals, and diversity, equity & inclusion as a growing area of interest. Coggins cited Academy Past President Mary D. Miller as a role model, noting Miller’s participation in the Academy’s 2016 video, “A Great Career for a Man?” She also said her experience as an Academy volunteer was “far richer and more impactful than I initially anticipated. … I received so much more than I felt I was contributing.”
Call for Contributors: Speakers, Authors, Content Reviewers-Academy members may indicate their interest in creating thoughtful and engaging content as an author, speaker, or content review for Academy publications and events. Just log in to your member account and update your profile, indicating your interest in any of these exciting opportunities. Also, feel free to use the open-ended field to suggest ideas for consideration. Whether you have been working in the profession for only a few years-or decades-this is an excellent volunteer opportunity if you want to make an immediate impact and are motivated by and committed to the Academy’s mission to serve the public and the U.S. actuarial profession but have limited time to serve in a traditional volunteer role.
Capitol Forum Webinar Examines Retirement Issues With DOL Assistant Secretary
Khawar presents at Thursday’s Capitol Forum webinar
The Academy on Thursday hosted “Capitol Forum: Dialogue with DOL on a National Retirement Income Policy,” a pension webinar focused on retirement issues that featured a conversation with Ali Khawar, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) acting assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). Khawar offered EBSA’s perspective on retirement and lifetime income, and talked about DOL’s priorities, including a conflict-of-interest project and recent actions on cryptocurrency. Former Retirement System Assessment and Policy (RSAP) Committee Chairperson Eric Keener moderated, and current RSAP Committee Chairperson Claire Wolkoff participated as a panelist. Slides and audio will be available soon.
New Retirement Issue Brief Wraps Up ‘Guiding Principles Series’
A new package of RSAP Committee issue briefs on retirement issues includes the last of the series, published this week-Retirement Policy: Aligning Plan Design With Effective Employee Engagement, which explores how retirement program design can impact participants’ decisions with the goal of improving retirement security. The previous issue briefs are National Retirement Policy & Principles (July 2019), Retirement Security Challenges: Portability and Retirement Income (April 2020), New Retirement Plan Designs: Degrees of Risk Sharing (October 2021), and Retirement Policy: Potential for Changing Roles of Employers in Retirement Programs (October 2021).
Academy Webpage Spotlights Public Policy Research
Visit the Academy’s Public Policy Research webpage, a new page on the Academy’s recently revamped website. It contains papers from the Climate Change Joint Task Force, Climate-Related Financial Disclosures Work Group, and on aggregating regulatory capital requirements across jurisdictions, published under the direction of Steve Jackson, the Academy’s assistant director for research, public policy.
Next Week-P/C Wildfire Risk Webinar
Register for next week’s “Wildfire Lessons Learned and State of Wildfire Risk Modeling,” a webinar presented by the Academy’s P/C Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee that will feature a discussion of the recently published Wildfire: An Issue Paper-Lessons Learned from the 2017 to 2021 Events. Speakers will provide a review of recent regulatory actions and potential public policy responses. Presenters will be committee members Howard Kunst and Dave Evans. Academy Past President Shawna Ackerman will moderate. The webinar will be held on Thursday, March 17, from noon to 1:30 p.m. EDT. Register today.
Big Data Webinar Set for March 22
Mark your calendar for “Big Data and Algorithms in Actuarial Modeling and Consumer Impacts: Six Questions and Answers for Actuaries,” a webinar this month that will discuss the use of big data and algorithms in actuarial modeling, a topic of increased interest. Panelists will draw from and expand on the findings of the recently released monograph Big Data and Algorithms in Actuarial Modeling and Consumer Impacts. The webinar will be held on Tuesday, March 22, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT. Register today.
ICYMI-‘Explaining Professionalism to Principals’ Discussion Paper
In case you missed it, the Committee on Professional Responsibility’s discussion paper, Explaining Professionalism to Principals, is a guide to help actuaries think proactively about professionalism and how to explain its importance to the work they do. The January “Professionalism Counts” also gives a deep dive on the paper with an interview of several of its authors.
Academy Alerts
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The House and Senate each passed an appropriations bill funding government operations, which includes an extension of National Flood Insurance Program funding and various health provisions, while not extending COVID-19 aid. Read the Academy alert.
Public Policy in Focus
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The Life Reserves Work Group, Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group, and Variable Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group submitted an amendment proposal form and presentation to the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) on swap spreads and the transition from London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR).
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The Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group submitted recommendations of aggregation principles as outlined in the Academy’s Preliminary Framework Elements for Fixed Annuity Principle-Based Reserving to LATF’s VM-22 Subgroup.
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The Long-Term Care Medicaid Subcommittee submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the proposed rule, “Medicare Program; Contract Year 2023 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Programs.” The comments focused on dual-eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs) and separate medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements.
Visit the Public Policy page to stay on top of the latest news and activities.
Upcoming Events
Mark Your Calendars for ASB Webinars on Revised ASOPs
Three actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) have been recently revised. Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) committee and task force members responsible for revising these ASOP revisions will present the key changes practitioners need to be aware of as these standards take effect.
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April 5: “ASOP No. 2, Nonguaranteed Elements For Life Insurance and Annuity Products“
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April 22: “ASOP No. 4, Measuring Pension Obligations and Determining Pension Plan Costs or Contributions“
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May 12: “ASOP No. 11, Financial Statement Treatment of Reinsurance Transactions Involving Life or Health Insurance“
All webinars will start at noon EDT. Registration will open soon.
In the News
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Bloomberg Law, BenefitsPRO, and InvestmentNews reported comments made by EBSA Acting Assistant Secretary Ali Khawar in Thursday’s Capitol Forum webinar.
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A MarketWatch article about factors in insurance costs for electric vehicles quoted Senior Casualty Fellow Rich Gibson.
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Alpha Wealth Hour cited the Academy (appx. 31:30 mark) in discussing longevity as a factor in financial planning.
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