Health

The Long-Term Care (LTC) Valuation Work Group gave a presentation to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC’s) LTC Actuarial (B) Working Group on the work group’s progress on the NAIC’s requests that the work group develop a replacement mortality table for LTC active life reserves, develop a replacement lapse table, and consider developing tables for valuation on total lives basis as well as active lives basis.

The Long-Term Care (LTC) Valuation Work Group gave a presentation to NAIC’s LTC Actuarial (B) Working Group as part of the NAIC Summer 2020 Virtual National Meeting.

The ASOP No. 6 Practice Note Work Group released an exposure draft, ASOP No. 6 - Development of Age-Specific Retiree Health Cost Assumptions for Pooled Health Plans, Including Applications to Non-Pooled Health Plans, to provide information for actuaries valuing retiree health benefit plans. Comments on the exposure draft are due to the Academy by September 30, 2020, and can be sent to Health@actuary.org. 

The Risk Sharing Subcommittee filed comments with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on exposed Amendments to the HHS-Operated Risk Adjustment Data Validation Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s HHS-Operated Risk Adjustment Program. 

The Health Practice Council and its Task Force to Review Actuarial Standard of Practice (ASOP) 11 filed a comment on the Actuarial Standards Board exposure draft, Reinsurance Involving Life Insurance, Annuities, or Health Benefit Plans in Financial Reports.

Individual and Small Group Markets Committee issue brief outlining the major factors driving premium changes for the next plan year.  This year’s issue brief focuses primarily on the impact of COVID-19 on the 2021 premium rate filings.

The Health Practice Council has released an issue brief that examines the different types of risks that insurers can face and the various risk mitigation mechanisms that can be used to address them, Health Insurance Risk Mitigation Mechanisms and COVID-19.

The Medicare Subcommittee released an issue brief on the fundamental long-range financing challenges facing the Medicare program. Read the news release.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Academy has extended the comment period for the exposure draft of the Actuarial Memorandum Practice Note until June 15. Comments had previously been due in March. The Actuarial Memorandum Practice Note Work Group published the exposure draft in January to provide information that can be useful for appointed actuaries dealing with challenges of producing an Actuarial Memorandum in support of the Actuarial Opinion filed as part of the Health Annual Statement Blank, which is often referred to as the Health Blank or the Orange Blank. Comments can be submitted to health@actuary.org.

The Health Practice Council developed answers to several FAQs discussing the pandemic’s potential effects on health care spending and insurance as insurers develop premiums for 2021. Read the news release.

The Health Solvency Subcommittee submitted a response letter to the NAIC Health Risk-Based Capital (HRBC) Working Group for its request to provide the health bond factors over a range of additional time horizons—spanning one to five years. 

Comments of the Individual and Small Group Markets Committee and Risk Sharing Subcommittee on the proposed rule for the 2020 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP).

The Medicaid Subcommittee has released a new issue brief addressing concerns related to the growing health care costs through Medicaid and analyzes the public policy proposals to reform the program. 

The Smarter Spending Work Group has released a new issue brief regarding consumers’, providers’, and payers’ roles in health care spending and initiatives and approaches to address health care costs.

A new issue brief has been released that explores current long-term care insurance (LTCI) programs, provides a history of long-term care (LTC) products, and discusses how a cash value LTCI design may provide consumer benefits.