Description: Report from research project that reviewed and inventoried the range of quality and efficiency measures that demonstrate the performance of hospitals and physicians. Besides outlining key areas of consideration for quality and efficiency measurement, this report also describes future opportunities for actuaries and other health professionals interested in this evolving area. The inventory part of the report is in a separate document.

Description: A discussion of the pillars required to build the needed paradigm for insurance company risk management. From The Actuary Magazine April 2005

Description: For several years there has been discussion in the insurance industry of the need for additional capital sources to participate in insuring the financial risk posed by natural catastrophes. A number of methods for accessing the capital markets have been introduced and some insurers are using these to hedge exposure to catastrophe loss. This paper summarizes some of the discussion and describes some of the methods proposed. It then focuses on one of these methods, the use of catastrophe insurance options. Results of simulations are given which may serve as a guide to insurers interested in using these options as part of their risk management strategy and also as an indication to investors of the value of these instruments as a new component of an investment portfolio.

Description: This paper presents a method of testing second-order stochastic dominance of risks. This methodology allows risks to be partially ordered by value with available data - requiring only that the risks have yields distributed as one of the location-scale family of distributions and that the actuary can specify that family.

Description: Article is a detailed discussion of the Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (RMORSA) Model Act that was recently approved by the NAIC and is being adopted by legislatures across the country.

Description: The April 2016 Issue of The Modeling Platform

Description: A new health insurance pricing model takes external market prices into account, as well as regulatory rate restrictions and other traditional pricing factors. Rather than being assumed at the outset, lapse rates emerge from the model, along with assessment spiral & loss ratio projections. Under the model optimal pricing strategy depends on whether the class being rated has a healthier than average mix of risks.

Description: In an effort to build a bridge between epidemiological and actuarial modeling, this paper analyzes possible financial arrangements made against expenses resulted from medical treatments given to insured patients. Based on classical compartment models, the first part of this paper designs insurance policies for susceptible participants facing the risk of infection and formulates the financial obligations of both parties using actuarial methodology. For practical purposes, the second part employs a variety of numerical methods for calculating premiums and reserves. The last part illustrates the methods by designing insurance products for the Great Plague in Eyam and the SARS Epidemic in Hong Kong.

Description: Using data from 12,571 publicly traded U.S. industrial firms spanning 1980 to 2004 for which quarterly firm specific financial variables and macroeconomic variables are available, this is the abstract of a paper that estimates the probability of bankruptcy/merger for each company and hence a prediction of bankruptcy/merger in the next quarter.

Description: This is the strong message to encourage all actuaries in the world, who are struggling against low/zero/negative interest rate. Japanese actuaries have been struggling with low/zero/negative interest rate since 1995. There are experiences in asset management, product revision, pricing strategy, and capital management that can be applicable to other countries.