LTCI Research Coordinator

John C. Wilkin, Research Coordinator

Coordinator Role: Monitor and promote research (data and methods) useful to Section membership in understanding, developing and managing public and private LTC insurance programs.

Scope: Research performed by academic institutions (universities), research organizations (Lewin, etc.), insurance industry organizations (HIAA, etc.), LTC industry organizations (AHCA, etc.), government agencies, consumer groups (AARP, etc.), and actuarial organizations (inside and outside the US and Canada).

Priorities

• Summarizing research activity and results in a form useful to Section membership
• Identifying data and methodology needs of Section membership that might be addressed by research
• Facilitating LTCI data access by researchers
• Fostering new research in areas of greatest need

Key Initiatives'

• Establish an ongoing LTCI Section Research Committee. The Research Coordinator will serve as chairperson. Committee members will be solicited f rom the Section membership and need not be Council members.
• LTCI Credibility Study: Assist SOA/NAIC effort to identify and develop methods for incorporating emerging insurer and industry LTCI claim experience into valuation assumptions. Solicit academic actuarial community for candidate methods (credibility models, Bayesian models, etc.), submit methods for review by panel of practicing LTCI actuaries, and outline research steps to refine methods or develop new methods. This initiative will be managed by the new Research Committee.
• Establish a research monitoring mechanism using Section volunteers to periodically review key research journals for articles of potential interest to the Section membership. Article citations would be submitted to the Research Coordinator, who would organize the references for access by Section membership (say, on the Section website).
• Establish a convenient ongoing method of identifying the research needs of the Section membership. This might range from periodic solicitations of the membership to an online research topic suggestion box. Translating this input into annual research objective for the Section.
• Establishing a mechanism for connecting researchers with good ideas with Section members willing to share data or test new methods.