Milliman insight from around the world

16 September 2021

ESTR volumes way up, EURIBOR swaps more muted, and SONIA volumes well above GBP LIBOR swaps across all tenors.

15 September 2021 - By Erica Reijula, Adam Singleton, Joseph Boschert, Mike Gaal, David C. Lewis

Learn about challenges surrounding hospital price transparency data and if meaningful information exists.

15 September 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Review this report recapping the state of the local and global markets at month end.

15 September 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated retiree buyout cost as a percentage of accounting liability decreased by 10 bps from 102.3% to 102.2% in August.

14 September 2021 - By Kathryn Rains-McNally, John M. Pickering

Recent changes in health plan and hospital transparency rules have potential to expand transparency to commercial market.

13 September 2021 - By Joel S. Chansky, Arlene M. Richardson

Understand the key provisions in the 2017 Federal Income Tax Legislation, and consider these strategies to optimize after-tax income.

10 September 2021 - By Rajish K. Sagoenie, Bas van den Brink

Pensioen is in essentie eenvoudig, maar is in de loop der jaren met de beste bedoelingen ingewikkeld geworden.

10 September 2021 - By Derek Newton, Ian Penfold, Vidyut Vardhan

European non-life insurers saw an average solvency coverage ratio of 241% for year-end 2020, slightly down from 245% a year earlier.

10 September 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, Isabel Stansfield, James Wilkie

We cover the latest noteworthy items from the EIOPA and PRA in the UK, organized by agency and date.

09 September 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

The Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio rose to 97.1 percent, ending two-month skid in funded status losses.

09 September 2021 - By Florin Ginghina, Lewis Duffy

Many companies will be keen to submit responses or at least understand the potential impact any changes to the Solvency II regime may have on balance sheets

08 September 2021 - By Hervé Andrès, Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Alexandre Boumezoued, Eric Serant

We explore a new methodology to show lower equity shocks, since stock markets are mean-reverting and insurers hold equities for the long-term.

03 September 2021 - By Adel Cherchali, Abdal Chaudhry, Michael Leitschkis, Julien Vedani

Proxy models are not always easy to validate, so we present a useful framework to make LSMC troubleshooting more accurate.

03 September 2021 - By David Kirk

New regulations encourage innovation and transformation in South Africa’s insurance industry

02 September 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 206 bps as of the end of August 2021, up 2 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

02 September 2021 - By Durand Oliver

Risk may be rising, but investors still have time to review key lessons to avoid making the same mistakes that have destroyed portfolios in past crises.

01 September 2021

For this PULSE survey, we looked at employee financial well-being in the face of an enduring global pandemic.

01 September 2021 - By Susan Melmed, David Kirk

The Prudential Authority (PA) published in July the draft Prudential Standard on public disclosures for insurers (PDI) and related guidance notice (GN) for public comment.

31 August 2021 - By Marc Guieb

Pharmacy Briefing is a monthly summary of select U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals and launches, treatment guidelines and research updates, and other newsworthy events that have the potential to impact commercial drug utilization or costs.

31 August 2021 - By Eoin King, Ankur Jain

This paper covers a number of areas including how LACDT is calculated under the Solvency II regulations, how firms can justify an allowance for LACDT, the modelling of future taxable profits, the practical challenges in recognition of LACDT, amongst others.

30 August 2021 - By Ernst van Bruggen

Learn more on the proposed pension reform in the Netherlands, as we evaluate the accounting consequences for companies, reporting under the International Accounting Standards or under the U.S. Accounting Standards Codification.

25 August 2021 - By Paul Sinnott, Michael Daly, Richard W. Holloway, Wing F. Wong, Chihong An, Wen Yee Lee, Stephen H. Conwill

While gross written premium fell by 0.4%, embedded value grew by 13.2%.

25 August 2021 - By Priya Sharma, Neha Taneja

Buyer beware: Effective due diligence of targets demands a unique knowledge base of current market pricing and market views on potential transactions.

25 August 2021 - By Ryan Cook, Mary Leong

Estimated retiree buyout cost decreases a tad in July, by 10 basis points, to 102.3% of accounting liability.

24 August 2021 - By Robert D. Bachler, Mike Hamachek, Zach Hatzenbeler

Review results from Milliman's 2021 survey covering the employer stop-loss market.

24 August 2021 - By Carl X. Ashenbrenner, Andy Kline

U.S. general aviation premium increased 33% over the last two years, and market profitability has been consistently negative over the last five.

23 August 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our snapshot for end of July: Equity markets mixed, credit markets bounce back, UK inflation up, and volatility on the rise.

20 August 2021 - By Peter Franken, Dominik Sznajder, Romain de Harlez, Floris Brull

This briefing note looks at the year-end 2020 Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) of selected non-life insurers based in the Netherlands

20 August 2021

The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of technology adoption for our workforce to connect and collaborate.

20 August 2021 - By Garry Simmons , Tammy McAllister, Ryan Hart

For this survey, we looked at how employers and plan sponsors are addressing plan funding as well as how they are adopting more focused provider network solutions to help participants make better and more informed healthcare decisions. Here’s how our survey played out.

20 August 2021 - By Charles J. Clark

These year-over-year increases for tax-qualified employee benefit retirement plans are expected to be greater than those that produced the 2021 IRS limits.

18 August 2021 - By Julie Cannaday, Nancy Kariel

We detail proven components of successful lump-sum window campaigns that result in a win-win for plan sponsors and participants.

18 August 2021 - By Joanne Buckle

Examine different facets of health insurance through an eco-friendly lens.

18 August 2021 - By Brian N. Anderson, David Cusick

Milliman’s Payment Integrity Tool and Mastercard’s AI Express Tool identified $239 million in healthcare fraud, waste and abuse.

17 August 2021 - By David Bahlinger, Stuart D. Rachlin

We surveyed 20 key players to gauge the impact of the pandemic on the industry, providing a benchmark for all on various elements of the business.

17 August 2021 - By Nina M. Lantz, Rex Barker, Timothy L. Connor, William Wade

The aggregate funded percentage for multiemployer plans is at its highest point since 2007, estimated to be 92% as of June 30, up from 88% at the end of 2020.

16 August 2021 - By Rong Yi

Despite slowdown in population growth, China’s commercial health insurance market still has a lot of room to grow for the foreseeable future.

13 August 2021 - By Charles J. Clark, Casey B. Baldwin

Milliman consultants help plan sponsors understand the IRS’ guidance under notice 2021-48 and how it will impact defined benefit pension plans.

10 August 2021 - By David P. Mirkin, William J. Fox

Historically low MLRs give commercial insurers a unique opportunity to make targeted investments in quality improvement and efficiency measures.

09 August 2021 - By Andrew Gilchrist, Claire Booth, Kapil Relwani, Sahil Bhandari

Market participants have until Sept. 30 to submit comments on the FCA’s proposals regarding the disclosure documents they provide to retail investors post-Brexit.

09 August 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, Isabel Stansfield, James Wilkie

We chronicle the latest noteworthy items in the regulatory landscape for life insurance companies in the UK, organized by agency and date.

09 August 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

The Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio continues its recent slide, to 95.8 percent in July, down from 97.1 percent in June, as lower interest rates increase liabilities

06 August 2021 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Kendall Carolissen

A more unified approach across Europe means certain insurers and supervisors need to adjust their approach to comply with the revised guidelines.

05 August 2021 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

GSE mortgage default risk increases for first time since 2019, to 1.52% for loans originated in the first quarter, up from 1.38% in the fourth quarter 2020.

04 August 2021 - By Anders Larson, Mackenzie Egan, Robbie Richards, Cory Gusland

We analyzed recent MSSP results for ACOs, and found that drivers of recent success are quite different from our report in 2015, and in some cases the opposite.

04 August 2021 - By Lalit Baveja, Deepika Jain

We summarise different methodologies adopted by healthcare stakeholders to measure medication adherence, and offer some advancements in standardizing this critical metric.

03 August 2021 - By Mark Whatley, Juraidah Hussain

The number of accounts shows an even participation between the genders, but member balances for men are about 10% higher than those of women.

03 August 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 204 bps as of the end of July 2021, up 7 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

02 August 2021 - By Robert L. Schmidt, Eric Walters

We present our latest numbers on how much healthcare will cost retirees going forward.

02 August 2021 - By Vanessa M. Vaag, Charles J. Clark

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Notice 2021-48 has been released with compliance guidance under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) for single employer defined benefit (DB) pension plan sponsors and their U.S. tax-qualified retirement plan advisors.

02 August 2021 - By Richard C. Frese

As Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and passengers make it to space, a new area of risk arises for the insurance industry.

30 July 2021 - By Charlie Howell, Kapil Relwani

We summarize recent guidance, which covers how insurers can harness the benefits of AI, address the risks it generates, and promote trust in its use.

30 July 2021 - By Dr. Leena Chakma Laloo, Lalit Baveja

With an urgent need to bring cost inflation into a sustainable range, we examine best practices in reducing spending, while maintaining or improving patient outcomes.

29 July 2021 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Jessica Crowson, Lewis Duffy, Florin Ginghina, Ian Humphries, Stuart Reynolds, Sarah Walker, Sihong Zhu

While the PRA stresses QIS should not be viewed as policy proposals, firms should consider the impact the exercise could have on their balance sheets.

28 July 2021 - By Russell Ward, John Jenkins

We summarise key points from our engrossing and wide-ranging discussion with senior insurance investment professionals in July.

23 July 2021 - By Clement Bonnet, Brian Colgan, Michael Daly, Sharon Huang, Farzana Ismail, Philip Jackson, Sung Hoon Kim, Atsushi Okawa, Wing F. Wong

After a wave of new regulations for companies, this executive summary provides a high-level update to our last report from 2020.

23 July 2021 - By Nina M. Lantz, Yutaro Seki , Aaron Shapiro

Multiemployer Review: We cover the latest guidance issued in July.

23 July 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Keeping you apprised: View snapshot on the local market and beyond.

23 July 2021 - By Jenica Ghorashi

Markets were up broadly over the quarter as the global economic recovery continued.

23 July 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Average estimated retiree buyout increased in June to 102.4%, up from 102.0%, while the competitive pricing trend decreased to 100.0%, down from 99.7%

23 July 2021 - By Derek Newton, Ian Penfold, Marc Smillie

A comprehensive macro and micro view of the latest EU SFCRs for UK and Gibraltar carriers.

22 July 2021 - By Christin Kuretich

I’d like to examine the word "strategy" not as a buzzword, but as a guide. Taking a step back—what does strategy mean, anyway?

21 July 2021 - By Chris Beck, Blake Fleisher

Following AXA’s decision to scale back underwriting insurance that reimburses payments, we examine how companies can analyze whether to pay ransom themselves

21 July 2021 - By Neil Christy, John Jenkins, Stuart Reynolds

A time of transition: Considerations for the future regulatory landscape in the United Kingdom

21 July 2021 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

Funded status soars to 82.6%, up from 79%, buoyed by strong market returns, with deficit falling below $1 trillion for the first time for this Milliman index.

19 July 2021 - By Brian Fomby

The right approach will result in better use of the team and technology, greater retention of talent, and a more successful outcome of the transformation

19 July 2021 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Ken Lim , Tananya Santipinyolert, Tarinee Sriboonchaichusakul

The latest market info and more: Overall premiums up 4.3% in early 2021 year over year, while net loss ratio edges 1.6% lower.

19 July 2021 - By Brian Colgan, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Life in Indonesia: Our review of industry developments from the first quarter.

19 July 2021 - By Robert Eaton, Missy Gordon

This podcast episode explores aging-in-place, including potential policy changes, implications for payers and policyholders, recent innovations, and trends such as telehealth.

16 July 2021

ESTR volumes drop again in June, while volumes for EURIBOR swaps trading remain stable, and those for SONIA continue overtaking GPB LIBOR swaps

15 July 2021 - By Tyler Armstrong, Randy Beams , Robert Eaton

The preferred solution for Med Supp modeling is a modern actuarial modeling software platform because of the effective risk governance framework, efficient assumption management, logical inputs, and the capability of modeling complex variable interactions.

12 July 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Decline in discount rate pushes funded status downward in June to 97.2 percent, from 98.8 percent in May, giving up 12 percent of gains from eight-month streak of increases.

09 July 2021

Take note of the eligibility criteria for plans to apply to receive a one-time cash payment to pay all benefits through 2051.

09 July 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

Keeping you apprised on UK life insurance with our summary of regulatory developments for June.

08 July 2021 - By Simon Ho

Milliman explains in a Q&A with financial advisors how SmartShield works and why it provides a compelling reason to stay invested through all market conditions.

08 July 2021 - By Carl A. Friedrich, Susan J. Saip

Our comprehensive 2020 survey covers key issues in the markets for universal life, indexed universal life and variable universal life.

07 July 2021 - By Jeremy D. Palmer, Christopher T. Pettit, Ian M. McCulla, Cameron Kinnick

We review various key metrics, such as the composite underwriting ratio increasing to 3% in 2020 due to COVID-19, versus less than 1% in other years.

07 July 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 197 bps as of the end of June 2021, up 13 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

06 July 2021 - By Stephanie R. Sorenson

For employers that would like to attract and retain this tech-savvy group, offering retirement benefits and educating employees on them can set companies apart.

06 July 2021 - By Andrew Henning, David Kirk

Insurer beware: Before more guidance from South African regulators becomes available, we offer our approach to calculating the SAM non-life risk margin.

06 July 2021 - By Kevin Manning, Paul Marron, Eamon Comerford

Commercial and residential mortgages can give European life insurers meaningful returns in the search for yield.

06 July 2021 - By Bryan Sklar , Mary Hart

Hedge your bets: It is in the best interest of the plan and its participants to explore all of your options for completing a DB plan termination project.

02 July 2021 - By David Bahlinger, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

Our report on the supplement market shows the effects of COVID-19: Inforce premium rose only 1.2% to $62 billion in 2020 from 2019, but still a positive sign.

02 July 2021 - By David Kirk, Richard Taylor, Avashni Rossouw, Susan Melmed, Chris van der Merwe

Our second quarter recap covers the country’s latest developments relevant to insurers.

02 July 2021 - By Stephanie R. Sorenson, Shelly Borden

These plans are not subject to ERISA, but it’s important to understand where IRS rules and regulations are still relevant, and where separate guidelines apply.

01 July 2021 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr

Best practices for NDCP sponsors: Review of current state of top-hat participation and reporting rules.

01 July 2021 - By Andy McBeth, Charlie Mills, Danjie Zhou

We estimate 2021 commercial reimbursement for medical services to be about 190% of fully-loaded Medicare, with a big difference between facility and professional.

30 June 2021 - By Trever Mertz

With relentless annual increases in legal costs for companies, we answer some questions on spend management platforms, clarifying their key distinctions.

28 June 2021 - By Ellyn Russo, Thomas Pu, David V. Williams, Melody Craff, Jennifer R. Cohen

Did the influenza virus also follow stay-at-home orders for 2020-21 season? We offer three hypotheses to explain a 94% drop in cases.

28 June 2021 - By David E. Forbes

Sorting it all out: This report summarizes the main features and differences for FASB, IFRS and statutory accounting.

28 June 2021 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Continued strong NIW, movement in quarterly market share among insurers, improvements in IIF performance, and an update on MILN issuances to-date

25 June 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

De-risking continues to get less costly: Estimated retiree buyout cost slips 40 basis points in May to 102.0%, continuing four-year and 2020 downward trends.

24 June 2021 - By Esther Peterson

We analyze the problem of student debt and how student loan matches (SLiMs) by employers could mitigate the problem. Should this solution should be considered?

24 June 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Keeping you apprised: View snapshot on the local market and beyond.

23 June 2021 - By Victor Huang

Older investors need to be particularly cognizant of controlling volatility and minimizing the impact of sustained market drawdowns

23 June 2021 - By Heidi tenBroek, Rebecca Schiffer

Using inclusive language consistently and pervasively sends a strong message that inclusivity is a value of your organization. Your employees will notice.

22 June 2021 - By Austin Barrington, Joseph Boschert, Mike Gaal, David C. Lewis

Stragglers to the party: Only 61% of providers have posted machine-readable files, and there’s a wide variance of data quality among those reporting.

21 June 2021 - By Mark Whatley, Juraidah Hussain

The female-to-male ratio of long-term savings in Singapore improved to 90.7% in 2019, up from 85.4% in 2009, signaling a narrowing of the gender gap.

18 June 2021

May 2021: ESTR volumes drop, EURIBOR volume stable, and SONIA volumes well above GPB LIBOR swaps

18 June 2021 - By Claire Armstrong-Hann, Mark C. Olleman, Arthur Rains-McNally

To answer this question, we discuss how trustees should first address the big picture and examine a plan’s balance between benefits, contributions, and risks.

18 June 2021 - By Michael Paczolt

Learn how to maximize your ROI by integrating your claims data with AI.

18 June 2021 - By Heidi tenBroek, Sharon Stocker

Milliman case study: How we helped a company needing to cut its workforce convince 35% of participants to voluntarily accept early retirement.

17 June 2021 - By Garry Simmons , Tammy McAllister, Ryan Hart

We take the pulse of group health plans: Our survey shows how companies are positioning their offerings as life returns to a new normal.

16 June 2021 - By Durand Oliver

Why downside protection, an effective risk management technique used by insurers, is the way to safeguard investment portfolios from extended market downturns.

14 June 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

Keeping you apprised on UK life insurance: Check out our summary of regulatory developments for May.

07 June 2021 - By Nancy P. Watkins

The need to cross-pollinate: Milliman gathers industry leaders to discuss climate impacts and solutions, working to solve the problem of climate resilience.

04 June 2021 - By Elizabeth Anne Jackson, Brenda Runyan, Luke Metz, James Kenney

Evaluating multiyear payment arrangements? Assess retention rates for patients with rare diseases.

04 June 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Heidi tenBroek

Once-in-a-lifetime financial crises push Fortune 100 companies to financial stability.

04 June 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Ever so close to full funding: The Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index increases to 98.8 percent in May, up from 98.4 percent in April, as gains eclipse rate decreases

04 June 2021 - By Conor Callaghan , Eoin King

Recovery plan requirements update: This briefing note summarises the published regulations and guidelines of the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI).

03 June 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1 ) is estimated to be 184 bps as of the end of May 2021, up 2 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

02 June 2021 - By Greg O. Callahan, Marc Guieb

With PBMs, is it best to go with a standard or custom formulary, or a hybrid of the two? We discuss the considerations to help plan sponsors choose the best option.

01 June 2021 - By Daniel Wade, Jessica Gardner, Arthur Rains-McNally

Public pension funding policies have implications, so we present plan sponsors with a framework to understand their choice of amortization method.

01 June 2021 - By Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Charles Boddele , Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Russell Ward

While setting the overall discount rate under IFRS 17 might seem overwhelming, we give some practical considerations to get the job done.

27 May 2021 - By Patrick Meghen, James Johnston

In this briefing note we discuss some of the main items for firms to consider in this proposed guidance.

27 May 2021 - By Paul R. Houchens, David M. Liner, Annie Man, Andrew L. Naugle, Doug Norris, Scott A. Weltz

Our 2021 healthcare trends report predicts that healthcare spending will grow by 8.4% to $28,256 for a family of four.

26 May 2021 - By Bruce R. Mitton

You probably aren’t lucky enough to benefit from the traditional company retirement plans of old, but buying an annuity might be the next best thing.

24 May 2021 - By Donal McGinley

Why are actuaries started using Python programming language? Learn more in this briefing note.

21 May 2021

ESTR volumes way up, EURIBOR swaps more muted, and SONIA volumes well above GBP LIBOR swaps across all tenors.

21 May 2021 - By Christopher J. Giese, Annie Gunnlaugsson, Evan Pollock

LTC brief: The number of individuals with long-term care insurance slightly declined over the years, but private claim counts rose over 50% over the past decade, surpassing 275,000 in 2019.

19 May 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our April snapshot of the U.K. and beyond for Solvency II rates and the markets in 25 charts and tables.

19 May 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Retiree buyout cost edges down 30 basis points in April to 102.4%.

18 May 2021 - By Brian Z. Brown, Rachel Soich, Christopher Fredericks

Protect yourself: How errors and omissions coverage can safeguard against potential lawsuits for professional services firms.

18 May 2021 - By Zorast Wadia

Defined benefit pension funding gets a new life: Nine considerations for corporate plan sponsors after the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

17 May 2021 - By Sinéad Clarke, Orlaith Lehane

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published its opinion on the supervision of the use of climate change risk scenarios in ORSA.

17 May 2021 - By Calvin Chou

San Francisco treat: What employers need to know about the city’s health care security ordinance to do it right, and avoid financial penalties.

17 May 2021 - By Ehab Atassi, Neha Taneja, Rahaf Alhodaif

Ways to reduce the burden of road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia.

14 May 2021 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Fanny Pouget, Freek Zandbergen

Key takeaways from EIOPA’s comparative study on market and credit risk modelling.

14 May 2021 - By Bradley J. Piper, Emily Vandermause

Good benefit and premium design can drive enrollment growth for startup MAOs looking to ramp up membership in Medicare Advantage plans .

13 May 2021

A primer for plan sponsors on demographic and longevity risks and how they affect public pensions.

11 May 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

UK life insurance: Summary of regulatory developments for April.

10 May 2021 - By Robert Eaton, Kenneth L. Clark

Explore how bundling Medicare Supplement (Medigap) and short-term care products may provide a complementary hedge of certain policyholder behavior risks.

06 May 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

The Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index funded ratio increases to 98.3% as investment gain of 2.30% offsets discount rate decrease.

05 May 2021 - By Durand Oliver

Investors can maintain upside exposure to growth assets and achieve a high level of insulation against market risk by constructing portfolios with Maverick’s confidence and Iceman’s discipline.

04 May 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 182 bps as of the end of April 2021, up 6 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

04 May 2021 - By Teresa K. Wilder, Ali LaRocco

This paper explores the racial inequities in the oral healthcare delivery system, found from the Healthy People 2020 plan.

04 May 2021 - By Josh Dobiac, Maarten Ruissaard, Freek Zandbergen

Explore the intertemporal dynamics as hedged liabilities age in Solvency II hedging: Part three in a series.

04 May 2021 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

GSE loan default rates remain unchanged at 1.27%, while those for Ginnie rise 25 basis points to 7.64%

03 May 2021 - By Greg O. Callahan, Marc Guieb, Dustin Pollastro

A review of best practices for plan sponsors in evaluating clinical programs offered by pharmacy benefit managers.

01 May 2021 - By Kenneth L. Clark, Robert Eaton

This article describes Medicare Supplement and short-term care products in more detail, and we compare their risk profiles.

01 May 2021 - By Robert Eaton, Dr. Anitha Rao

This paper describes the results of our analysis into how the supply of neurology specialists for diagnosis and care of ADRD, as captured by Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Neurology Desert Index (ANDI) scores, relates to historical LTCI cognitive claims.

30 April 2021 - By Alicia Gounden

Climate change presents risks and opportunities for South African insurers.

28 April 2021 - By Jenica Ghorashi

First quarter 2021 market recap: Equities rise, but bonds fall due to rising longer-duration interest rates.

28 April 2021

Benchmark Rates Liquidity Monitor for March 2021: ESTR volumes up, and SONIA volumes overtake GBP LIBOR swaps for key long-term tenors.

27 April 2021 - By Victor Huang

Why retirees need a new way to balance risk and return in the wake of COVID-19.

26 April 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Milliman Pension Buyout Index: Estimated retiree buyout cost rises 60 basis points in March to 102.7%.

26 April 2021 - By Sinéad Clarke, Kevin Manning

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has had numerous impacts on health systems worldwide, with extra support needed globally to address the healthcare needs associated with the pandemic.

23 April 2021 - By Bradley J. Piper, Emily Vandermause

Why Medicare Advantage plans should focus continuously on achieving high star ratings.

21 April 2021 - By Eamonn Phelan, Conor Callaghan

This briefing note considers aspects that supervisors have recently commented upon, along with other topical areas that companies may find useful to consider when preparing their 2021 ORSA.

21 April 2021 - By Paul R. Houchens, Andrew Dilworth, Liam Plunkitt

This report provides an analysis of the recently released 2020 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Scorecard.

20 April 2021

Milliman Focus: An update on important work we’re doing with respect to long-term care.

20 April 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

This report recaps the state of the local and global markets at month's end. The report includes graphs, tables and commentary on the equity, bond, and currency markets both domestically and globally.

19 April 2021 - By Alexander Krauskopf , Katrin Hoellering, Alexandra Pflumm

How machine learning algorithms can serve as good predictors of future claims cost for chronic diseases.

19 April 2021 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

Public pensions funded ratio rises to new high of 79.0% in the first quarter, up from 78.6% three months earlier, fueled by strong and steady market rebound since March 2020.

19 April 2021 - By Charles J. Clark, Vanessa M. Vaag, Grant Camp

This podcast episode explores how the American Rescue Plan Act may impact single and multiemployer pension plans, and what plan sponsors should consider when taking potential action as a result of ARPA.

16 April 2021 - By Jason Cai, Matthew Smith

What health plans need to know about Medicare Advantage financial reconciliation.

16 April 2021 - By Ryan Cook, Rex Barker, Ryan Rowland , Stephanie Sent

We present four case studies to show how the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 can impact corporate pension plans.

15 April 2021 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr

Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code places a $1 million-dollar limit on the amount of deductible compensation that a “publicly held corporation” can pay to their “covered employees."

15 April 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman 100 PFI leaps to 98.4% in March, up from 95.1% a month earlier, thanks in part to rising interest rates for the third consecutive month.

13 April 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

UK life insurance: Summary of regulatory developments for March.

13 April 2021 - By Sean Silva, Michael Halford , Kathryn Elizabeth Mohr

Plan sponsors have several items to consider regarding the timing and implications of new surprise billing measures passed by Congress.

12 April 2021 - By Garry Simmons , Tammy McAllister

Milliman pulse survey uncovers key benefit trends shaped by COVID-19.

08 April 2021 - By Jason Karcher, Andrew M. Keeley, Steven Rounsley

We examine the effects of recent federal funding on payment rates for evaluation and management services.

08 April 2021 - By Chad C. Karls

Effective management of defense costs now requires legal claims analytics, with the adoption of new technologies that add visibility and inform business decisions.

07 April 2021 - By Robert Eaton

Learn more about Brella offering supplemental health insurance, and why actuaries working as product designers provides value to customers from Robert Eaton and Veer Gidwaney.

07 April 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Alan H. Perry, Charles J. Clark

The largest DB plans improve funded ratio to 88.4% in 2020, up from 87.5% a year earlier.

07 April 2021 - By David Evans, Cody Webb, Andrew Netter, Brandon Katz

Flooding stands out among other natural catastrophes because of the risk it poses to mortgages, and therefore the financial health of the average U.S. homeowner, as Milliman and KatRisk experts explain.

06 April 2021 - By Donal McGinley, Cormac Gleeson, Matthew McIlvanna, Eóin Stack

In this briefing note, we look at how organisations can structure their model governance framework and provide some ideas on how actuaries can consider the new section of ASP-PA2, in relation to model governance to ensure that they are meeting the standard.

06 April 2021 - By Paul R. Houchens, Zach Hunt

Composite underwriting margins remain near highs for the individual market, and steady for group insurance.

05 April 2021 - By Austin Barrington, Joseph Boschert, Mike Gaal, David C. Lewis

Early days of hospital price transparency: two-thirds of providers have posted key metrics.

05 April 2021 - By Van Beach, Jonathan B. Glowacki, Makho Mashoba, Benjamin J. L. Buttin, Alexandre Boumezoued, Joe Long, Zohair Motiwalla, Josh Dobiac, Antoine Ly, David South

A comprehensive look at uses of cloud computing and machine learning in the actuarial profession.

05 April 2021

Benchmark Rates Liquidity Monitor for February 2021.

05 April 2021 - By Penny Edlund, Anikia Nelson, Melody Craff, Maureen Tressel Lewis

Our study of racial disparities in cardiovascular disease contributes new research and approaches toward achieving healthcare equity.

05 April 2021 - By Frederick (Fritz) Busch, Dustin J. Grzeskowiak, Garry Simmons

Offering direct primary care gains traction for self-funded employers.

02 April 2021 - By Larry Baeder, Peggy Brinkmann, Eric J Xu

Machine learning algorithms fit models based on patterns identified in data and can be very complex.

02 April 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1 ) is estimated to be 176 bps as of the end of March 2021, down 18 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

01 April 2021 - By Robert Eaton

The 2020 Long‐Term Care (LTC) Medical Symposium was a two half‐day conference that extracted the thinking of leading experts on historical and future trends that will influence LTC insurance (LTCI) claim expectations.

01 April 2021 - By Daniel W. Colby

We present the basics of how actuaries determine different liability measurements for DB plans, and their intended purpose.

01 April 2021 - By Yelena Pelletier

Case study: How one town quantified and mitigated the risks of pension obligation bonds.

29 March 2021 - By Brian Colgan, David Kong, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Life in Indonesia: Our March 2021 review of industry developments from the fourth quarter.

24 March 2021 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Continued strong NIW, accommodative borrower forbearance policies extended, focus on reserving and ultimate outcomes of delinquent inventory, and 2021 MILN issuances begin.

23 March 2021 - By Robert Eaton, James G. Stoltzfus, Andrew H. Dalton, Mike A. Bergerson

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) retained Milliman, Inc. (Milliman) to conduct a survey on the impact of COVID-19 on Long-Term Care (LTC) insurance mortality, voluntary lapse, and morbidity experience.

22 March 2021 - By Mike A. Bergerson, Missy Gordon, John Hebig, Joe Long

How new approaches to model visualization can support greater understanding of results.

22 March 2021 - By Michael Halford , Robert L. Schmidt, Lacy Moore, Kathryn Elizabeth Mohr

How the federal COBRA subsidy could impact plan sponsors and participants.

22 March 2021 - By Mary Pat Stemnock, Jeremy Hoffman, Jeremy Cunningham

Increasing treatment options for substance-use disorders could help break the cycle of recidivism among individuals in the justice system.

19 March 2021 - By Chris Harner, Chris Beck, Blake Fleisher

This white paper discusses the importance of modeling cyber risk for businesses.

17 March 2021 - By Jake Pringle, Mary Leong

The American Rescue Plan Act 2021 (ARPA ’21) provides relief for defined benefit (DB) pension plans by effecting changes to the Internal Revenue Code and allowing for optional retroactive application dates.

17 March 2021 - By Lupco Blazeski, Keith Lockwood, Suzanne Norman, Peter H. Sun

This paper introduces Milliman’s Retirement Income Security Evaluation (RISE) Score, which measures how well a retirement portfolio will be able to cover basic living expenses, health care and other costs after leaving the workforce.

17 March 2021 - By Amy Nicholson, Dianie Ravinthiranathan, Jennifer van der Ree

Some thoughts on potential approaches to winding up with-profits funds.

17 March 2021 - By Frederick (Fritz) Busch, Jason Karcher, Josh Fink, Barbara Collier, Jason K. Sciborski

ACA subsidy increases translate to more affordability and new opportunities for carriers.

17 March 2021 - By Smitha Radhakrishna

Our quick guide for self-insured employers for combating healthcare costs recommends disease management programs, proactive health-management tools, and on-site clinics.

17 March 2021 - By Amelia Lisi

Some thoughts on how managed care organizations can use technology to bolster remote care and lower costs.

17 March 2021 - By Josh Reinstein, Phil Ellenberg

Hospital price transparency: The impact of the shoppable file.

16 March 2021 - By Jill S. Herbold

States with higher nursing home penetration rates may have a significant opportunity to reduce costs and improve patient satisfaction.

16 March 2021 - By Sean Silva, Michael Halford , Kathryn Elizabeth Mohr

Multiemployer alert: Details on the federal COBRA subsidy.

16 March 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated retiree buyout costs decrease 30 basis points in February to 102.1%.

15 March 2021 - By Delbert Zamora

Case study: Milliman explores a host of options for a JV pension-plan design to achieve the best outcome.

11 March 2021 - By Scott McEachern, Patrick Cambel

Five reasons why RFPs with PBMs should be a regular practice to help control Rx costs.

11 March 2021 - By Russell Ward, Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi

While inflation is stable today, members should manage this rising risk for their portfolios.

11 March 2021 - By Julia Friedman

How Medicare Advantage plans reacted to enrollment expansion to patients with End-Stage Renal Disease.

11 March 2021

Trading volumes in EUR and GBP interest rates swaps and overnight index swaps picked up in January 2021.

11 March 2021 - By David Kirk, Richard Taylor, Avashni Rossouw, Susan Melmed, Chris van der Merwe

Our insurance industry update for South Africa, March 2021.

11 March 2021 - By Nina M. Lantz, Yutaro Seki , Aaron Shapiro

Multiemployer review: A closer look at the American Rescue Plan Act.

10 March 2021 - By Vanessa M. Vaag, Bret Linton

Client Action Bulletin: How the Rescue Plan Act brings relief for defined benefit plans of single employers.

09 March 2021 - By Robert Eaton

Learn more about the origins of Plug and Play Tech Center, how the pandemic has affected their business model, the importance of actuaries, and their collaborations between large insurance companies and start-ups.

09 March 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

UK life insurance: February regulatory roundup of updates by three relevant agencies.

08 March 2021

Multiemployer alert: pension relief passes in the Senate.

08 March 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Update: Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio raises to 92.9% in February as a result of rising interest rates.

05 March 2021 - By Alison Counihan, Edward Jhu, Lalit Baveja

This paper considers the role of reimbursement mechanisms, and particularly diagnosis-related groups price adjustors, in directing general policy and specifically in the role of value-based healthcare.

04 March 2021 - By Jason Karcher, Troy M. Filipek, Brandy N. Millen

The implications of Rutledge v. PCMA for pharmacy benefit managers and employers.

04 March 2021 - By Nina M. Lantz, Yutaro Seki , Aaron Shapiro

Alert: What the Butch Lewis EPPRA means for multiemployer defined benefit plans.

03 March 2021 - By Olivier Mahieux, Romain de Harlez

Market insight from year-end 2019 SFCRs: Sample of non-life insurers based in Luxembourg.

03 March 2021 - By Jason Karcher, Doug Norris, Kelsey Benz

Possible impacts of the COVID-19 relief legislation on private health coverage.

02 March 2021 - By Sean Silva, John R. Botsford, Michael Halford

Multiemployer alert: More guidance on deadline suspensions for COBRA elections, claims, and appeals.

02 March 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 194 bps as of the end of February 2021, down 27 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

02 March 2021 - By Jan Thiemen Postema, Raymond van Es

Explainable AI in practice: Build trust and encourage adoption.

01 March 2021 - By Noah Champagne, Jonah Broulette, Catherine M. Murphy-Barron

How Direct Contracting presents an opportunity for Medicare Advantage plans.

01 March 2021 - By Julia Friedman

COVID-19 creates a compelling environment for Medicare Advantage telehealth offerings.

26 February 2021 - By Olivier Mahieux, Romain de Harlez

Market insight from year-end 2019 SFCRs: A sample of life insurers based in Luxembourg.

26 February 2021

Historically low interest rates make pension obligation bonds a possible low-cost solution to shoring up underfunded plans for communities.

25 February 2021 - By Stephen P. Melek, Stoddard Davenport

How the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 affects MHPAEA.

25 February 2021 - By Yutaro Seki

Alert: COVID-19 relief bill introduced Feb. 24 could impact multiemployer pension plans.

25 February 2021

Health & group benefits: 10 topical Milliman articles from the second half of 2020.

25 February 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Milliman Pension Buyout Index: Estimated retiree buyout cost in January rises 60 basis points to 102.4%.

24 February 2021 - By Luke B.G. Roth , Jessica Naber, Luke Metz, Nina Nikolova

An analysis of hospital care for the uninsured in the United States shows charity care costs are rising.

24 February 2021 - By Amy Kwong , Bruce S. Pyenson, Feven Asefaha, Hanaa Siddiqi

How current Part D risk scores could interact with point-of-sale rebates.

24 February 2021 - By Safder Jaffer, Asad Irshad

UAE Industry Report 2020: Despite COVID-19, nation’s insurance industry stays resilient and records profit increase for fourth consecutive year.

23 February 2021 - By Sheila Jelinek, Suzanne Norman, Jeanne Russo

This paper details the low rates of financial literacy in the U.S., explores the factors behind it, and offers some timely ideas and resources for raising our level of financial literacy as a society.

23 February 2021 - By Joanne E. Fontana

Harnessing the value of dental plans: Why it’s worth revisiting this key employee benefit.

23 February 2021 - By Alexander Krauskopf , Katrin Hoellering, Alexandra Pflumm

Die hier vorliegende Analyse beschäftigt sich mit der Prognose von chronischen Krankheiten unter Verwendung von Verfahren des Machine Learning.

22 February 2021 - By Eamonn Phelan, Orlaith Lehane , Rosemary Maher

EIOPA, as part of the Solvency II 2020 review have suggested that all insurers should draft a Liquidity Risk Management Plan (LRMP).

22 February 2021 - By Josh Dobiac, Maarten Ruissaard, Dmitry Zamkovoy, Freek Zandbergen

Interest Rate Risk Management under Solvency II: Impact of the DLT assessment.

19 February 2021 - By Harsha Mirchandani, Samantha Tomicki, Rebecca Smith, Rebecca L. Johnson, Sally Maraldo, Andrew Yang

We describe significant racial disparities in access to preventive diabetes care.

19 February 2021 - By Darin Muse, Nancy Gu

Our analysis on how COVID-19 affects Medicare Advantage star-rating calculations for 2021 and 2022.

19 February 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

London Market Monitor: A recap of January's macroeconomic statistics related to risk management.

17 February 2021 - By Nina M. Lantz, Rex Barker, Timothy L. Connor, William Wade

Milliman analysis shows aggregate funding levels for multiemployer plans at their highest point since 2007 following turbulent year.

17 February 2021 - By David G. Hayes, Courtney R. White

This paper discusses how a provider-sponsored MCO and its parent health system can team together to create a unique player in the health insurance landscape, using major levers and how they can impact the success of each organization.

17 February 2021 - By Ian Penfold, Natasha Singhal, Sophie Smyth

In this paper, we discuss how insurance companies can consider the impact of climate change through their Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA).

17 February 2021 - By Dustin J. Grzeskowiak, Chris Lewis, Nathan Smith

CMS launches Medicare Part D Senior Savings Model to reduce non-low-income (NLI) beneficiary cost sharing for insulin products distributed under the Medicare Part D benefit.

17 February 2021 - By Joanne Buckle, Natasha Singhal

England benchmarking of inpatient admissions identifies value opportunities.

16 February 2021 - By Adam Feller, Kate Herbig, Kevin Pierce, Matthew Hayes

Is it worth revisiting the Medicare Part D Payment Modernization Model?

12 February 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 221 bps as of the end of January 2021, down 8 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

12 February 2021 - By Tian Kang Lim, Victor Huang

Transaction costs incurred within rebalancing strategies, can result in a material drag on performance.

11 February 2021 - By Michelle N. Angeloni, Michael E. Saypoff , Patricia A. Zenner

Starting a Medicare Advantage plan can be risky, but it can be a successful endeavor for organizations that are able to successfully manage the key drivers of profitability: claim costs, administrative expenses, and revenue.

10 February 2021 - By Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Charles Boddele , Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Russell Ward, Freek Zandbergen, Sihong Zhu

This paper is part of a series covering the overall process for discount rates under IFRS 17, specifically the number of steps required to set a discount rate.

10 February 2021 - By Kerry Forrester, Julie D. Smith

Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 56, Modeling, was released and went into effect October 1, 2020, and provides direction to actuaries in all practice areas when performing actuarial services that require modeling.

10 February 2021 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Ken Lim

Overall, Non-Life industry direct premiums grew by nearly 4% in the 2020. Motor premiums declined in H1 but recovered strongly in H2, resulting in full year growth of 1.4%.

09 February 2021 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Thomas D. Murawski

COVID-19 has lead to potential downward and upward pressures on dental claims for dental industry stakeholders, including dental care providers, consumers and dental insurance carriers.

08 February 2021 - By Nicholas Johnson, Sam Shellabarger, Annie Hallum

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid introduced the Direct Contracting entity for individuals dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare in December 2020.

05 February 2021 - By Peter Fielek, Erik Huth, Jason J. Petroske

This paper aims to provide insights and options for estimating key Affordable Care Act risk adjustment factors and increasing the level of confidence in the projection process.

05 February 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In January, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans improved by $39 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

04 February 2021 - By Nicholas Johnson, Sam Shellabarger, Annie Hallum

This white paper summarizes the new Direct Contracting option that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced in December 2020.

04 February 2021 - By Noah Champagne, Matthew Emery

To succeed in the Medicare Advantage (MA) space, provider-based MA plans face the challenge of providing affordable, efficient healthcare to Medicare beneficiaries without cutting into their own revenue flow.

04 February 2021 - By Heerak Basu, Philip Jackson, Sanket Kawatkar, Richard W. Holloway

This e-Alert discusses key announcements affecting the Indian life insurance industry.

04 February 2021 - By Tony F. Bloemer, Richard C. Frese, Timothy C. Vosicky

The application of Illinois House Bill 3360 to medical liability losses will have significant impacts.

03 February 2021 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

Mortgage demand remained strong during the third quarter of 2020, with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage volume increasing more than 125% year-over-year and hitting record volume.

02 February 2021 - By Neil Christy, Jack Huffer, Russell Osman, Philip Simpson, Russell Ward

This note considers who may be affected by the new international Insurance Capital Standard and the impact the new standard has on the evaluation of available and required capital.

01 February 2021 - By Mike Gaal, Jason Karcher, Maryellen Vargas

Employers should understand how reference-based pricing programs work and the potential risks associated with them before transitioning.

01 February 2021 - By John Jenkins, Peter Lin, Russell Ward, Sihong Zhu

On 7 January 2021, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published Consultation Paper 1/21, setting out the plan for the transition of the UK Solvency II discount curve to a curve that references the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA).

01 February 2021 - By Annie Man, Marina Zen

This paper discusses five reasons why Medicaid-focused insurers may benefit from having a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act line of business post-COVID-19.

29 January 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi

Bespoke fund overlays can allow the flexibility to be able to provide beneficial risk management to its members.

29 January 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi

In the area of investment management, the events of 2020 have brought the importance of risk management to the fore.

29 January 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi

How could low carbon equity indices be a cost-effective way to take a first step in aligning with NetZero 2050?

28 January 2021

De Milliman Markt Monitor geeft u maandelijks inzicht in de belangrijkste financiële risico’s die voor u als pensioenfondsbestuurder of -professional relevant zijn.

28 January 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During December 2020, average accounting discount rates and average annuity purchase rates both stayed level (competitive annuity purchase rates dropped by 3 bps).

27 January 2021 - By Charles J. Clark, Christopher R. Wood

The first step for the 117th Congress in enacting relief for defined benefit pension plans from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is included in “The Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021.”

27 January 2021 - By Joanne Buckle, Natasha Singhal, Kishan Desai

This report provides an updated view of National Health Service England prescription drug expenditure for FY 2019/20.

27 January 2021 - By Dmitry Zamkovoy

Cost pressures, efficiency of outsourcing and COVID-19 have all converged to make a compelling case for investment companies to reconsider outsourcing the trading function.

26 January 2021 - By Evan Pollock, Rachel Marsiglio , Juliet M. Spector

This paper provides guidance for insurers on how to prepare clean, efficient rate increase filings and to help carriers work with regulators to incorporate the information they seek.

26 January 2021 - By Annie Shen, Sheri Lee Scott, Katherine Dalis

To better understand its exposure to wildfire, the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan asked Zesty.ai, Inc., a company that provides a wildfire risk score model, to score the FAIR plan properties relative to wildfire risk.

25 January 2021

The challenges facing multiemployer defined benefit plans have received more immediate attention in recent weeks with proposed pension relief legislation being introduced in the House and Senate.

25 January 2021 - By Ari D. Kramer, Bradley J. Piper, Emily Vandermause

This article looks at the growth of 28 MAOs that entered the market five years ago from the service area and product portfolio perspective.

22 January 2021 - By Matthew Emery, Howard Kahn, Devin McCall, William M. Sayre, Stuart Silverman

This paper introduces life insurance investment strategies and how many of these same concepts can be applied to healthcare insurers and providers to better manage their overall risk profiles and potentially increase future returns on investment.

21 January 2021 - By Kathryn V. Fitch, Jonah Broulette, Kyle King

There is significant variation in skilled nursing facility (SNF) average length of stay among Medicare beneficiaries admitted to an SNF after an acute inpatient hospital stay, and this variation is unexplained by differences in patient case mix, highlighting the opportunity for more efficient management of length of stay.

21 January 2021 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

The estimated funded status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans grew from 72.6% at the end of September 2020 to 78.6% at the end of December 2020 as measured by the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index.

19 January 2021

Markets continued their advance over the quarter as accomodative monetary policy and multiple COVID-19 vaccine approvals bolstered the economic recovery.

19 January 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Equity markets made gains in December as optimism continued to grow with the COVID-19 vaccination programmes rolled out in parts of the world.

19 January 2021 - By Paul Sinnott, Michael Daly, Richard W. Holloway, Wing F. Wong, Chihong An, Wen Yee Lee, Stephen H. Conwill, Sanket Kawatkar, Shamit Gupta

This report provides a summary of the mid-year 2020 embedded value results disclosed by Asian insurers.

19 January 2021 - By Sinéad Clarke, Orlaith Lehane , Eóin Stack

The aim of this briefing note is to provide a “beginner’s guide” to climate risk for Irish insurers, an introduction to what the Central Bank of Ireland and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority are currently doing in relation to climate-related risk and what insurers could do to increase understanding of climate-related risk.

19 January 2021

How are two separate dollar amounts for my pension actuarially equivalent?

15 January 2021 - By Matthew McIlvanna

This briefing note provides a short case study on migrating an Excel/VBA model to Milliman Mind.

14 January 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

A summary of any regulatory updates published during December 2020 that may be of relevance to life insurance companies.

13 January 2021 - By Ari D. Kramer, Bradley J. Piper, Emily Vandermause

This paper identifies 28 Medicare Advantage Organization startups and follows each for five years to understand their enrollment growth.

12 January 2021 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Grigori Lev, Stephen Rook

What are some common critical illness benefit triggers found in the U.S. marketplace?

12 January 2021 - By Michael J. McCord, Abhisheik Dhawan

To begin to efficiently address resilience to climate-driven events, we need to enlist governments, insurers, banks and asset managers, infrastructure experts, and technical assistance and research firms.

12 January 2021 - By Marlene Howard, Jessica Bertolo, Clay Holman

Medicaid has an important role to play in ensuring coverage of and access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

12 January 2021 - By Grant Camp

This alert provides a brief outline of the primary provisions of the Chris Allen Multiemployer Pension Recapitalization and Reform Act of 2020.

12 January 2021 - By Stoddard Davenport

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred—and aggravated—a range of mental health and substance use issues in the United States, and Milliman’s Stoddard Davenport discusses recent statistics on the topic and what the road ahead may look like for mental health in America.

08 January 2021 - By Brent Jensen, Matthew Smith

As we move into 2021 and hopefully out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be interesting to see the impact on the trends of alternative payment models.

08 January 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

After experiencing steep declines in the first quarter of 2020, asset returns roared back for the remainder of 2020 and limited the funded status deterioration due to declining discount rates.

08 January 2021 - By Coleen Young, Hugh Larson, Annie Man

Recent Direct Contracting adjustments have created an opportunity for organizations considering becoming Direct Contracting Entities to attract physicians who might not have been interested previously.

08 January 2021 - By Madeleine Cline, Jake Klaisner, Michelle Klein, Hillary H. Millican

Does Amazon Pharmacy's new service disrupt, conform, or lay groundwork for future transformation?

05 January 2021

This article lists the top 10 most read articles on the Milliman Ireland website in 2020.

04 January 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 229 bps as of the end of December 2020, down 10 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

04 January 2021 - By Joanne Buckle, Jennifer R. Cohen, Peter Gregor, Nicholas Kallis, Qiuwen Peng

What is the current status of telehealth in major geographic markets, including the US, Europe and Asia?

04 January 2021 - By Matthew J. Kramer, Sam Shellabarger, Erica Reijula

This white paper compares and contrasts the financial benchmark methodology between the Direct Contracting Global and Professional options and the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

04 January 2021 - By Phil Ellenberg, Shyam Kolli, Tushar Makhija, Greg Sgrosso

This report summarizes the CY 2019 experience of selected financial metrics of organizations reporting Medicare experience under the Title XVIII Medicare line of business on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Annual Statement.

30 December 2020 - By Pamela M. Pelizzari, Suzanne Taranto, Eric Buzby

This paper looks at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation's bundled, or episode-based payment models and finds opportunities for employers, challenges in implementation, and services to target.

29 December 2020 - By Bret Linton, Vicki Mazzie, Vanessa M. Vaag

In addition to annual funding for the federal government and provisions on economic stimulus necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, enacted on December 27, includes temporary relief from the minimum vesting standards tax rules for employer-sponsored retirement plans- both defined contribution and defined benefit pension plans.

29 December 2020 - By Joseph Boschert, Jonathan Wood

Brokers and carriers should recognize the value in looking at medical costs when helping members with plan selection.

29 December 2020 - By Michael Graney, Fiona Ng, Ashleigh Sandrock, James G. Stoltzfus, Susan Tan

With earnings under pressure, the search for investment yields continues to be a big challenge faced by U.S. life insurers, and it will continue to be one of the most important focuses in the years to come.

29 December 2020 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Freek Zandbergen

This paper summarises the effects of changes to the speed of convergence on the discount curve and the introduction of the speed of convergence drag.

28 December 2020 - By Les Kartchner, Brent Jensen

What are some considerations for employers as new COVID-19 vaccines are made available?

24 December 2020 - By John M. Pickering, David C. Lewis, Mike Hamachek, Austin Barrington

What are some of the challenges that exist when it comes to extracting useful competitive information about negotiated payment rates from a machine-readable file?

23 December 2020 - By Robert Eaton

Learn how to better score risk, engage with customers, and detect claims fraud through analyzing social data points from Robert Eaton and Evgeny Aleksandrov.

23 December 2020 - By Robert Eaton, David Bahlinger

Milliman’s inaugural 2020 Short-Term Care (STC) Insurance Survey captures rich market data representing eight major STC insurers and $110 million of inforce premium.

22 December 2020 - By Joanne Buckle, Dr. Sudhanshu Bansal, Abhishek Agrawal, Diana Dodu, Monika Lis

This paper focuses on studying prevalent methodologies and best practices in assessing the impact of new technology and claims costs and medical inflation from the perspective of medical insurers and is primarily aimed at non-US insurers.

22 December 2020 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, David Bahlinger, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

Milliman’s inaugural Critical Illness (CI) Survey represents 38 carriers and $1.4 billion in inforce premium, and explores numerous facets of the CI market.

22 December 2020 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, David Bahlinger, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

Milliman’s third Hospital Indemnity (HI) Survey represents 32 carriers and $1.8 billion in inforce premiums, and explores numerous facets of the HI market.

22 December 2020 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, David Bahlinger, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

The Milliman 2020 Critical Illness (CI) Survey represents 38 carriers and $1.8 billion in inforce premium, and explores numerous facets of the CI market.

22 December 2020 - By Nathan Sandrowicz, David Bahlinger, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

The Milliman 2020 Accident Insurance Survey represents 39 carriers and $3.5 billion in inforce premium, and covers both Accident Indemnity and Accident Medical Expense.

22 December 2020 - By Robert Eaton, William G. Mehilos, David Bahlinger, Michael E. Weilant

This 2020 Worksite Life Survey represents 20 carriers and $2.0 billion in inforce premium, and focuses on term, whole life, and universal life products.

21 December 2020 - By Michelle N. Angeloni, Michael E. Saypoff , Patricia A. Zenner

What are some opportunities, challenges, and considerations for new Medicare Advantage organizations?

21 December 2020 - By Coleen Young, Hugh Larson, Matthew J. Kramer, Noah Champagne, Raheel Sohail

While the Geographic Direct Contracting Model shares some general characteristics with the other Direct Contracting Model Options, it is a fundamentally different approach in many key respects.

21 December 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During November 2020, average accounting discount rates decreased by 20 bps, while annuity purchase rates decreased by 9 bps (average) and 11 bps (competitive).

21 December 2020

This year was a year like no other with COVID-19 dominating the news. It’s no surprise then that COVID-19 also dominated Milliman's top 10 list of most read articles for the year.

18 December 2020

Regelmatig publiceert Milliman een overzicht van de op de Nederlandse pensioenmarkt actieve Algemeen Pensioenfondsen.

18 December 2020 - By James Johnston, Joanne Tan, Aisling Barrett

This report analyses the SFCRs of life insurance companies in Ireland at year-end 2019 covering written premiums, investments and solvency ratios.

17 December 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Equity markets had a very strong performance in November as investor confidence grew on the back of the announcement of three effective vaccines against COVID-19 and increased political certainty following the US election.

17 December 2020 - By Michael Halford , Sean Silva, David Stoddard

Plan sponsors need to consider how to cover the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines for their membership.

17 December 2020 - By Alexander Krauskopf , Christelle Desouhant, Joanne Buckle, José Silveiro, Judith Houtepen, Sinéad Clarke, Kishan Desai

This analysis compares information provided in the Quantitative Reporting Templates and Solvency and Financial Condition Reports and makes observations about the balance sheets and risk exposures of European health insurers.

17 December 2020 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

Quarter 3 investment gains propelled the estimated funded status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension funds from 70.7% at the end of June 2020 to 72.6% at the end of September 2020 as measured by the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index.

17 December 2020 - By David Stoddard, Michael Halford , Sean Silva

This year’s report includes data for 1, 283 plans covering approximately 4.8 million members as of 2018.

16 December 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Peter Lin, David Schreiner, Nima Shahroozi , Brendan Tease

This report summarizes key findings from the 2020 update to Milliman's survey of derivative usage for risk management in the global life insurance industry.

16 December 2020 - By Ian M. McCulla, Christopher T. Pettit, Colin R. Gray, Justin Chow

This report provides insight into the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Medicaid managed care organizations.

16 December 2020 - By Wing F. Wong, Yun-Tien Lee, Shenglan Ko, Kwan Yau

In an effort to enhance insurers’ fortunes in using their own data, we conducted research into product recommendation systems to demonstrate how recommendation techniques commonly used by digital retailers can also assist insurers.

15 December 2020 - By Martin Wouda

All the details of the Netherlands' new pension contract are not yet known, but that doesn't mean pension funds can wait to arrange the transition to the new pension reality.

15 December 2020 - By Adam Barnhart, Mary G. Yeh

This report evaluates the general enrollment Medicare Advantage plans available to individuals of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

14 December 2020

There were a number of highlights of the report related to the agency’s multiemployer program.

14 December 2020 - By Julia Friedman, Mary G. Yeh

This analysis focuses on mandatory supplemental benefits offered by Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans from 2017 to 2021.

14 December 2020 - By Julia Friedman, Mary G. Yeh

This article focuses on mandatory supplemental benefits offered by general enrollment Medicare Advantage plans from 2017 to 2021.

11 December 2020 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, William Smith , Isabel Stansfield

A summary of any regulatory updates published during November 2020 that may be of relevance to life insurance companies.

09 December 2020 - By Dustin J. Grzeskowiak, Brent Jensen, Colleen Norris

This article provides an update of our previously published summary white paper on changes to the CMS Direct Contracting program.

09 December 2020 - By Amelia Lisi

Attempting to provide care in rural communities can often pose many different challenges.

07 December 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In November, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans increased by $12 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

04 December 2020 - By Indira Gopalakrishna

This article describes a holistic approach that is necessary for low-income populations to successfully manage their financial risks called Risk Management 360.

03 December 2020 - By Josh Dobiac, Maarten Ruissaard, Freek Zandbergen

This paper addresses how hedgers can manage Solvency Capital Requirements, given the details of the proposed changes communicated by EIOPA in its consultation document.

03 December 2020 - By Jennifer Bolton

We transitioned to new benefit carriers for the first time in two decades, including a new medical plan administrator and prescription drug provider.

03 December 2020 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

The Milliman Public Pension Funding Study annually explores the funded status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans.

03 December 2020 - By Kristina Pizano

A church plan client reached out to Milliman for assistance with the termination of a pension plan.

02 December 2020 - By Robert Eaton

Learn how Limelight Health creates a positive user experience for employee benefits insurance quotes, ratings, and enrollment from Robert Eaton and Jason Andrew.

01 December 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 239 bps as of the end of November 2020, down 2 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in volatility.

01 December 2020 - By Robert Eaton, Missy Gordon

One strong step in making long-term care (LTC) an acceptable, insurable risk for insurance companies is to better understand the latent morbidity risk in advance of an LTC need.

01 December 2020 - By Robert Eaton, Katja Hanewald, Tin Long Ho

This article describes new mechanisms to fund long-term care using housing wealth.

01 December 2020 - By Pedro L. Alcocer, Tyler Armstrong, Robert Eaton, Pamela Laboy

This article addresses how the Medicare Advantage market responded in 2020 to the expansion of supplemental benefits.

30 November 2020 - By Adam Barnhart, Kevin Pierce

An induced utilization adjustment in the Part D Bid Pricing Tools shifts Part D risk sharing for some enhanced alternative plans, and this article highlights the importance and impact of this consideration along with details on how it could occur.

25 November 2020 - By Stacy Koron, Taylor McKinnon, Stephen Tabachnick

State Departments of Insurance have issued special rules, regulations, and guidance for insurers related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scope of this report is limited to such information applicable to accident and health insurance only and focuses on the impact that COVID-19 regulatory actions have on product administration.

25 November 2020 - By Deana Bell, Matthew Hayes, Michelle Klein, Tracy A. Margiott

The two final rules that were released on November 20 will have sweeping impacts to Medicare Part D and Medicare Part B drug pricing.

24 November 2020 - By Mike A. Bergerson, Andrew H. Dalton, Robert Eaton, James G. Stoltzfus

This report presents the results of Milliman's survey of long-term care (LTC) insurance companies pertaining to the potential impact of COVID-19 on LTC business,

24 November 2020 - By David Burston, Charlie Howell, Andrew Gilchrist, Philip Simpson

Life insurance has a data-fuelled business model that makes it an industry that appears, on the surface, to be well primed for the technological advances that artificial intelligence can offer in addressing the challenges it faces in an increasingly digital world.

24 November 2020 - By Noah Champagne, Pamela M. Pelizzari, Alexis Villafranca

This paper discusses the methodological changes for Model Year 4 and explores the impact the changes might have on participants.

24 November 2020 - By Andrew Kay, Freek Zandbergen, Cormac Gleeson

Andrew Kay provides an update on recent IFRS 17 developments, Freek Zandbergen presents on setting IFRS 17 discount rates, and Cormac Gleeson discusses the challenges faced by insurers in determining the confidence level of the Risk Adjustment under IFRS 17.

23 November 2020

Should public plans consider annuity purchases?

23 November 2020

What is an actuarial audit and why do I need one?

23 November 2020 - By Danny L. Quant

Governments, private employers and employees worldwide will face shortfalls in the provisions for retirement savings as the economic impact of COVID-19 continues to deepen.

20 November 2020 - By Ellyn Russo, David V. Williams, Jennifer R. Cohen

This article considers the performance of select vaccines against various communicable diseases caused by viruses.

20 November 2020 - By Scott McEachern, Sean S. Hilton, Michelle N. Angeloni

What are some critical considerations for Medicare Part D plans as they contract with a pharmacy benefit manager?

19 November 2020 - By Fernando Mesquida, Gabriela Dieguez, Jorge Torres, Romina Santoro, Lucila Antonucci, Carolina Artuso

Es conocido que las comorbilidades se relacionan con una alta proporción de fallecimientos relacionados con el COVID-19 pero hasta ahora no había sido posible cuantificar el efecto de las mismas sobre la mortalidad segmentado por edad y género.

18 November 2020 - By Nicholas Johnson, Annie Hallum, Nick Gipe

What are some key insights into the calendar year 2021 dual eligible special needs plan landscape?

18 November 2020 - By Brian Colgan, David Kong, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Developments in the Indonesian life insurance industry during the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020.

18 November 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Most major equity indices experienced material losses in October, as the rising number of COVID-19 cases forced some European governments to introduce new lockdown restrictions, while emerging markets outperformed their developed market counterparts.

18 November 2020 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

This Client Action Bulletin covers year-end compliance issues for single-employer retirement plans and nonqualified deferred compensation plans.

17 November 2020 - By Kristina Pizano, Haydee Scheel

Defined benefit plans should keep good participant address information on file as several notices are required to be mailed out regularly.

17 November 2020 - By John Paul Augeri, Mark Whatley

How will multinational companies find the right balance in their benefit programs to meet the needs of their employees and their business globally?

17 November 2020 - By Brian Z. Brown, Michael D. Price, Patricia A. Teufel, Steve Wilson

While improvements in governance and regulatory oversight over the last two decades have equipped audit committees with a greater understanding of what the risks are to reserves, there is little information available regarding how audit committee members should challenge actuaries and management to ensure that risks are being identified, clearly reported, and addressed.

17 November 2020 - By Donna Wix, Joanne E. Fontana

This paper uses calendar year 2018 Medicare Advantage administrative claim data for enrollees aged 65 and older enrolled in plans with embedded dental coverage to determine the types of dental services used and the dental per member per month costs, as well as to study correlations between medical and dental utilization.

17 November 2020 - By Eamonn Phelan, Fred Vosvenieks, Cormac Gleeson, Eóin Stack, Gavin Maher

What are some approaches to developing a robust suite of Key Risk Indicators and what are the wider considerations for risk reporting?

17 November 2020 - By Patrick Meghen, Eoin King, Eamonn Phelan

Patrick Meghen provides an update on changes in Solvency II-related requirements, Eoin King discusses the latest on ORSA, and Eamonn Phelan presents recent Milliman thought leadership on the design, calibration and reporting of effective key risk indicators.

17 November 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During October 2020, average accounting discount rates increased by 12 bps, while annuity purchase rates increased by 6 bps (average) and 12 bps (competitive).

17 November 2020 - By Smitha Radhakrishna

The potential benefits of integrating artificial intelligence into our healthcare ecosystem and devices are numerous, including automation of tasks, analyses of patient data, and delivery of better healthcare.

16 November 2020 - By Chris Harner, Chris Beck, Blake Fleisher

To balance the time-sensitive nature of the M&A process with the need to protect against acquiring a breach and destroying value, firms need to employ an efficient and repeatable cyber risk analysis strategy.

16 November 2020 - By Dan Mulhern

What are the actual effects of deferred and foregone care on total spending for the commercially insured population?

13 November 2020 - By Catherine M. Murphy-Barron, Doug Norris, Daniel J. Perlman

As chief financial officers and actuaries attempt to determine the pandemic’s impact on year-end financial statements, this article describes five issues that require additional attention.

12 November 2020 - By Samuel Burgess, David Burston, Stuart Reynolds, Lyndsay Wrobel

This publication provides a summary of the Solvency II-based metrics that a sample of 20 companies in Europe are disclosing as at year-end 2019 and the associated explanatory information.

12 November 2020 - By Barbara Collier, Michelle Klein

This paper examines the evolution and future of preventative services—a key component of many health insurance plans.

11 November 2020 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Amal Elfassihi, Cormac Gleeson, Andrew Kay, Orlaith Lehane , Bertrand Lespinasse, Damien Louvet

This paper presents a solution to address (re)insurers’ challenges, including how to determine the confidence level needed for disclosure purposes and how to restate a given confidence level over different time horizons.

11 November 2020 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

This Client Action Bulletin includes announcements by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for cost-of-living adjustments for 2021 Medicare Parts A and B, as well as for the Medicare Part D standard prescription drug benefits.

11 November 2020 - By Sheri Lee Scott

The 2020 wildfire season so far has offered no relief, with CAL FIRE reporting over four million acres burned calendar year to date, more than the two prior calendar years combined.

10 November 2020 - By Carol H. Steckel, Paul R. Houchens, Katherine Wentworth

Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services has published a rule updating this interpretation, creating new compliance requirements for states in order to continue receiving the enhanced FMAP.

09 November 2020 - By Martijn van Rooijen, Maarten Ruissaard, Kendall Carolissen

This paper aims to provide a comparison of capital treatments for different asset classes with the focus limited to European commercial banks and life insurers.

09 November 2020 - By Neil Cantle, Dana-Marie Dick, Amy Nicholson

This paper provides a summary of the EIOPA consultation that builds on work started by the Bank of England, requiring firms to consider climate change risks in the Insurance Stress Test 2019 exercise and the 2021 biennial exploratory scenario on financial risks from climate change.

06 November 2020 - By Greg O. Callahan, Angela Reed

This paper explores performance guarantees best practices plan sponsors can leverage to hold their pharmacy benefit managers accountable for operational performance.

06 November 2020 - By Georges Abbey , Alex Bryant, Clement Bonnet, Jessica Crowson, Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Paul Fulcher, Rikiya Ino, Ed Morgan, Freek Zandbergen, Sihong Zhu

This year’s asset liability management (ALM) Metrics Survey seeks to understand the current international practice in a variety of representative markets in terms of the approaches and the metrics used in ALM by global life insurers and discusses what might be considered best practices and how this might evolve in the future.

06 November 2020 - By Jason Fichtner

How annuity decisions are framed has a major impact on the decision to annuitize. This essay offers three ideas to help work within this dynamic.

06 November 2020 - By George A. Sandy Mackenzie

Both preretired and already retired households have always faced, in varying degrees of severity, five basic risks. This essay describes and analyzes each of the five risks in detail.

06 November 2020 - By Colin Devine, Ken Mungan

Americans entering retirement face a considerable level of risk from the triple threat of longevity, market volatility, and long-term care.

05 November 2020 - By Lalit Baveja, Samyukta Achar

This paper discusses the implementation and practical uses of wearables in the private medical insurance market.

05 November 2020 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Freek Zandbergen

This briefing note reviews the impact of lower interest rates on an alternative method that extrapolates long-term interest rates as part of Solvency II regulations.

05 November 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

As discount rates rose in October, the funded ratio increased to 85.1%, as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

05 November 2020 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

This Client Action Bulletin includes announcements released by the IRS and Social Security Administration for retirement plan benefits, as well as adjusted figures for high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts.

05 November 2020 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

While unemployment rates, delinquency rates, and the percent of loans in forbearance have increased rapidly since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the housing market has remained surprisingly resilient.

04 November 2020 - By David V. Williams, Jacob Bryniarski

Spurred on by COVID-19, mobile health has emerged as a promising technology that could have a material impact on addressing the Quadruple Aim of healthcare.

04 November 2020 - By Ian M. McCulla, Christopher T. Pettit, Colin R. Gray, Justin Chow

This report provides insight into the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Medicaid managed care organizations.

03 November 2020 - By Derek Newton, Marc Smillie , Ian Penfold

Our European analysis of the non-life market covers 884 companies from 15 countries which together comprise almost £350 billion of gross written premium and over £504 billion of gross non-life technical provisions.

03 November 2020 - By Smitha Radhakrishna

Digital health is expanding, and its power is especially relevant now during the COVID-19 pandemic.

03 November 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 241 bps as of the end of October 2020, down 12 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

03 November 2020 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr

This article summarizes additional IRS guidance on nonqualified deferred compensation plans and focuses on other areas of executive compensation that should be examined in light of current conditions.

03 November 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During September 2020, average accounting discount rates increased by 2 bps, while annuity purchase rates increased by 9 bps (on average) and 11 bps (competitive).

29 October 2020 - By Adam Barnhart, Julia Friedman, Peter T Kissinger

This paper provides insight into benefit and premium changes made alongside revenue changing due to a star rating change and measures the change in value added through benefits and premium changes provided to beneficiaries.

27 October 2020 - By Janet Jennings, Sheila Jelinek, Suzanne Norman

While it is too soon to quantify all the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper could help women become more aware of resources and solutions to help them and their loved ones be more financially secure.

27 October 2020 - By Aeron Riordon

Employers considering risk transfer activity should be aware of the risk of potential significant increases to pension cost if their auditor requires them to follow a new accounting approach.

27 October 2020 - By Eamonn Phelan, Gavin Maher

What are some important considerations for risk managers in the ever changing environment of the (re)insurance industry?

27 October 2020 - By Stephen R. DiCenso

On October 15, 2020, the District Court of Oklahoma issued its order of approval and implementation for the first ever Insurance Business Transfer, allowing for the novation of insurance policies to an assuming insurer without policyholder consent.

23 October 2020 - By Dominick Pizzano, Sarah Murray

This alert speculates on possible increases in Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax and why there may be interest in the “early inclusion” option under Internal Revenue Code §3121(v) for sponsors of and participants in non-account balance (i.e., defined benefit) non-qualified deferred compensation plans, also commonly referred to as supplemental executive retirement plans or “Top-Hats.”

23 October 2020 - By David D. Evans, Cody Webb, Elias Braunstein, Jonathan B. Glowacki, Andrew Netter

This report provides estimates of the insured and uninsured flood exposure of single-family residences in the contiguous United States from both storm surge and inland flooding.

23 October 2020 - By Brian Colgan, Philip Jackson

23 October 2020 - By Amy Nicholson, Sihong Zhu

Climate change risk should be a key consideration in evidencing an insurer’s Prudent Person Principle compliance.

22 October 2020 - By Corey Swarner

Milliman provides additional administrative services for the defined benefit pension plans a long-time client sponsors.

22 October 2020 - By Brian Colgan, Philip Jackson

本アラートでは、結果説明を容易にすることを目指したIFRS第17号の改訂内容について論じ、会計上のミスマッチ、その保険会社への影響、そしてPSAK 74に考えられる影響を減らすことを試みます。

21 October 2020

During the months following the February 2020 market drawdown, bonds, commodities, and stocks have all had a remarkable run, leading many investors and advisors to contemplate both the prospect of asset bubbles and the portfolio implications of those bubbles bursting.

21 October 2020 - By Nancy P. Watkins, John W. Rollins

How are leading investors factoring market-level climate risk into decision-making?

21 October 2020 - By Brandy N. Millen, Amy Giese, Jason Karcher

This article provides concrete examples of how pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) fees/margin, rebates, and quality improvement activities should be considered for calculating the medical loss ratio under different PBM arrangements.

21 October 2020 - By Fernando Mesquida, Gabriela Dieguez, Jorge Torres, Romina Santoro, Lucila Antonucci, Carolina Artuso

Milliman used data from Mexico’s Ministry of Health to analyze the increase in the mortality rate produced by COVID-19 by gender, age, and the presence of comorbidities.

20 October 2020 - By Robert J. Pipich, Karin Cross, Deana Bell

This paper presents nine scenarios intended to illustrate a range of potential outcomes on 2021 Medicare Advantage and Part D risk scores.

20 October 2020 - By Andrew Bochner, Jennifer Carioto, Luis O. Maldonado Irizarry

How will COVID-19 affect a health plan’s medical loss ratio requirements in general and what are specific considerations for the commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid markets in 2020 and going forward?

19 October 2020 - By Brian Colgan, Philip Jackson

In this e-Alert, we discuss amendments introduced to reduce the costs of IFRS 17, their impact on insurers and the likely impact on financial accounting standards.

19 October 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

The British Pound lost 3.6% and 3.9% against the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen respectively, whilst weakening 1.7% against the Euro, as worries of a potential “Hard” Brexit increased the Pound’s volatility.

16 October 2020 - By Adam Schenck, Jeff Greco, Joe Becker, Ram Kelkar

The market contraction at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Q1 2020 was the biggest test of risk-managed investment products since the 2008 financial crisis. This paper puts the downturn into historical context and examines how Milliman FRM's products performed.

15 October 2020

Markets continued their advance over the quarter as accommodative monetary policy proved to dampen the negative impact of the pandemic.

14 October 2020 - By Aatman Dattani, Zi Xiang Low, Zohair Motiwalla, Katherine Wang, Karthik Yadatore

This report analyzes, understands, and discusses the impact of the upcoming Principle-Based Reserving on non-variable deferred annuities.

14 October 2020 - By Eamonn Phelan, Fred Vosvenieks, Cormac Gleeson, Eóin Stack, Gavin Maher

This briefing note discusses how traditional emerging risk management frameworks may not fully capture the complexity of an emerging risk event and what lessons can be learned from COVID-19.

13 October 2020 - By Kevin Manning, Joanne Buckle, Lalit Baveja, Alison Counihan

Kevin Manning provided an update on COVID-19 looking at the impact on the Irish private health insurance market, and Joanne Buckle presented on the impact of data analytics on the value chain for both public and private heath payers.

13 October 2020 - By Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Charles Boddele , Thomas Bulpitt, Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Russell Ward, Freek Zandbergen, Sihong Zhu

IFRS 17 requires preparers of accounts to derive discount rates for the valuation of the cash flows associated with their insurance contracts.

13 October 2020 - By Safder Jaffer, Asad Irshad

Gross written premiums showed an overall increase, showing market resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

09 October 2020

On average, October is the most volatile calendar month of the year for the stock market. This year's contentious election may help to reinforce that trend.

08 October 2020 - By Frederick (Fritz) Busch, Lindsy Kotecki, Jeffrey G. Milton-Hall

The COVID-19 Advanced Population Shift model is a tool to help understand the interconnected nature of economic changes and health insurance coverage and to project the effects on the U.S. health insurance markets.

08 October 2020 - By Safder Jaffer, Asad Irshad

The UAE insurance market continued its trend for a third consecutive year with an overall increase in their profitability along with a premium growth in 2019.

07 October 2020 - By Jeff Chalk

Over the past few weeks, there has been quite a bit of fanfare over changes in two of the most widely known benchmarks for the U.S. stock market.

07 October 2020 - By Nancy P. Watkins

Nancy Watkins speaks with Jim Albert about flood insurance’s coverage gap, the adversarial position of the insurance industry, the wind-water conflict in claims, and climate change.

07 October 2020 - By Zohair Motiwalla, Zi Xiang Low, Aatman Dattani, David South

In the third quarter of 2020, Milliman refreshed a survey that establishes currently held market practice in the application of “VM-21: Requirements for Principles-Based Reserves for Variable Annuities.”

07 October 2020 - By Rachin Aggarwal, Joanne Buckle

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has become all the more important for insurers to manage their claims and expenses.

06 October 2020 - By Robert W. Beal, Daniel D. Skwire

How has COVID-19 affected individual disability income carriers’ new sales and claims to date and what can these companies expect going forward?

06 October 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In September, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans decreased by $8 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

05 October 2020 - By Andrew H. Dalton, Gregory T. Zebolsky

This article discusses the impact that COVID-19 could have on actuarial assumptions relevant to continuing care retirement communities—specifically, mortality and morbidity—as well as other experience, including especially the number of noncontractual residents in assisted living unit and skilled nursing facility levels of care.

05 October 2020 - By Josh Dobiac, Freek Zandbergen

This report examines the new Alternative Methodology for yield curve construction under Solvency II.

05 October 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 253 bps as of the end of September 2020, up 4 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

02 October 2020 - By Jamie Shooks

How do the risks in fantasy sports align with the general traits of an insurable risk?

02 October 2020 - By William Vogan

Four of the industry pricing surveys measure the ratio of rates written to the latest quarter to rates expiring during the latest quarter.

02 October 2020 - By John Klodnicki

The insurance industry must adapt in order to function in a post-pandemic world and navigate the “new normal” of a work-from-home economy.

02 October 2020 - By Mariah Mateo Sarpong, Mebrahtu Brhan Gebre

A holistic approach to dealing with climate risks— one that includes but is not limited to insurance— is needed to help vulnerable communities become more resilient.

01 October 2020 - By Scott Chow, Clement Bonnet, Julian Man, Michael Daly

Calculated annually by Milliman, the Milliman Fulfillment Ratio Index covers Hong Kong insurance companies representing a significant market share as measured by in-force premiums (> 85% in 2019).

30 September 2020 - By Robert W. Beal, Tasha S. Khan

This report presents the results of Milliman’s 2020 Annual Survey of the U.S. Individual Disability Income Insurance Market.

30 September 2020 - By Andrew Netter

This article takes a closer look at the COVID-19 disruption’s impact on the GSE CRT market—including subsequent changes to new issuance deal structure, pricing, and capital markets versus reinsurance allocation.

30 September 2020 - By Neil Christy, Stuart Reynolds, Samuel Burgess

This report focuses on the solvency and financial condition reports published in 2020 which refer to year-end 2019.

30 September 2020 - By Carl A. Friedrich, Susan J. Saip, Allen J. Schmitz

Milliman conducted a long-term care hybrid product survey intended to capture the industry’s views of the unique environment and provide high-level current sales information and future outlooks.

29 September 2020 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Jean-Philippe Boisseau

What does the world look like to a reserving actuary in 2060?

29 September 2020 - By Corey Swarner

How do you determine the “value” of an annuity in which future payments are promised for an individual’s lifetime?

29 September 2020 - By Tim Bernazza , Rebecca Connell

Milliman worked closely with a pension administration client to transition its 30,000-participant defined benefit plan to a novel solution that continued to offer ongoing benefit accruals to participants while maintaining cost-efficiency and contribution stability.

29 September 2020 - By Eric J Xu, Cody Webb, Molly Barth, Nancy P. Watkins

As the 2020 wildfire season exceeds historical norms, California insurers and policymakers are looking for durable solutions to extinguish the threat of a homeowners’ insurance crisis.

25 September 2020 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, Sean Mendes, Parth Patel

As the insurance industry transitions to being more customer-centric, implementing claims integration will likely become a must-have feature.

25 September 2020 - By Paul L. Correia

This survey provides a comprehensive analysis of new sales and inforce business for short-term disability and long-term disability insurance products in 2018 and 2019.

24 September 2020 - By Stephen P. Melek, Stoddard Davenport, Travis J. (T.J.) Gray

Telehealth visits may become part of the new “normal” for replacing, or at least supplementing, office visit-based treatment for behavioral health conditions.

23 September 2020 - By Judith-Anne Brelih, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Want to know the state by state effect of the pandemic on the housing market? Metrics and commentary analyze the relationship between COVID-19 and impact.

22 September 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During August 2020, average accounting discount rates increased by 24 bps while annuity purchase rates increased by 20 bps.

21 September 2020

What are some of the risks related to ASOP 51 disclosures?

18 September 2020 - By Marcel Kruse , Dmitry Zamkovoy

De Benchmarkhervorming Transitie Monitor (BMR Transitie Monitor) is een maandelijkse publicatie van Milliman Pensioenen. Hierin staat het transitieschema van de benchmarkhervorming en eventuele wijzigingen in dit schema.

17 September 2020

On September 14, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation released its 2019 FY Projections Report.

17 September 2020 - By Eric J Xu, John W. Rollins

Predicting whether insurtechs will seek closer connections among the players in the value chain, or a greater separation, requires consideration of factors that could cut both ways.

16 September 2020 - By Neil Christy, Stuart Reynolds, Samuel Burgess

Published in 2020, the Solvency and Financial Condition Reports provides information from year-end 2019.

16 September 2020 - By Bryan Wilson, Keith Young

It is especially important to review your terminated vested participation population every year and reach out to them to commence benefits if they are at or beyond normal retirement age.

16 September 2020 - By Neil Cantle, Nancy P. Watkins, Peter Kingsley of The Oracle Partnership

In this article, Milliman’s Neil Cantle and Nancy Watkins, along with The Oracle Partnership’s Peter Kingsley, discuss the role that actuaries and insurers can play in tackling climate change following the coronavirus crisis.

16 September 2020 - By Neil Cantle

Going forward, financial services firms must now evaluate the anticipated financial impact of climate change, and are expected to include considerations of climate change within risk management frameworks.

15 September 2020 - By Nate Gorst, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Now that we are several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, sufficient data exists to analyze its effects on the mortgage market and draw conclusions on the impact this disruption will have on the mortgage marketplace for the rest of 2020 and 2021.

15 September 2020 - By Nicholas Beihoff, Ryan Lindsay, Jonathan B. Glowacki

This article provides clarity on the Adverse Market Refinance Fee and its potential impact.

15 September 2020 - By Conor Callaghan , Rik van Beers, Kevin Manning

This briefing discusses regulations for pre-emptive recovery planning for (re)insurers, reinsurance as a capital management tool for life insurers and unit matching under Solvency II.

15 September 2020 - By Jill S. Herbold, Nicholas Johnson

This paper discusses some challenges faced, actions taken, and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on home and community-based services for years to come.

14 September 2020 - By Joe Becker

Four charts that provide historical context around the condition of the U.S. labor market.

14 September 2020 - By Marcel Kruse , Geert-Jan Kremer

Het nieuwe pensioenstelsel lost veel op, maar de gekozen rendementsverdeling tussen oude en jonge pensioendeelnemers kan voor de nodige teleurstelling zorgen.

14 September 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Equity markets had a positive performance in August with all major indices making gains for the month as investors and market participants continued to show strong demand for risk assets.

14 September 2020 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

The Employee Benefit Security Administration of the Department of Labor published a final rule on the use of electronic media as a default to provide information to pension plans’ “covered individuals.”

11 September 2020 - By Richard C. Frese

The introduction of COVID-19 has had an almost immediate influence on insurance yet it may take a long time to fully realize the effects. What are strategies to make benchmarks valuable now and post-COVID-19?

11 September 2020 - By Raji Bhagavatula, Mark Goldburd, Manyi Luo , Jason L. Russ

For the second quarter of 2020, the property and casualty insurance industry published financials that show a decline in net premium, mainly attributable to COVID-19.

10 September 2020 - By Andrew B. Groth, Katherine A. Pipkorn

There are companies innovating in the student loan space, but significant opportunity remains for insurtechs and traditional insurance carriers to create a unique “win/win”: sustainable solutions that capture a portion of the $1.54 trillion student loan market, while also providing students with postgraduation financial stability—helping graduates achieve their future dreams.

10 September 2020

How does the life cycle of a pension plan affect the appropriate investment allocation for assets?

10 September 2020 - By Elizabeth Bart

As traditional auto insurers compete against each other for customers, they’re now also faced with new entrants into the auto insurance market race: car manufacturers.

10 September 2020 - By Susan Philip

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased the use of telehealth, so Milliman’s Susan Philip and Mei Kwong, executive director of the Center for Connected Health Policy, discuss what providers, payers, and patients should know about this virtual healthcare service.

09 September 2020 - By Zorast Wadia

In August, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans increased by $93 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

08 September 2020 - By Noah Champagne, Andrew Yang

At the end of July, a bipartisan bill entitled "Value in HealthCare Act of 2020" was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives proposing a number of significant changes to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicare Shared Savings Program and the Advanced Alternative Payment Model feature of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

08 September 2020 - By Sanket Kawatkar, Philip Jackson, Heerak Basu, Richard W. Holloway

This report presents the results and insights from a fresh survey of Indian life insurers, covering their participating business management and asset share calculation approaches.

08 September 2020 - By Paul M. Fedchak, Stacy Koron

Changing consumer preferences and technology are driving much of the need for innovation and, as the emergence of COVID-19 has shown, the most vulnerable parts of an industrial sector can be quickly be brought down by an unexpected event.

04 September 2020 - By Joanne Buckle, Peter Gregor

This paper examines the strategies and business models adopted by leading players in the international private medical insurance market as well as the key success factors and capabilities required to win and sustain profitable growth in a post-COVID-19 world.

03 September 2020 - By Christine M. Fleming, Travis J. Grulkowski

The unusual liabilities of black lung require actuarial and case reserving models that are truly unique.

02 September 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 249 bps as of the end of August 2020, down 25 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

02 September 2020 - By Charles J. Clark, Ginny Boggs

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has published an interim final rule describing calculation methodology and model language to “obtain relief from liability” in the presentation of “Lifetime Income Illustrations” applicable to ERISA-covered defined contribution (individual account) plans, the intent of which is likely a regulatory safe harbor.

01 September 2020 - By Erica Rode, Hans K. Leida

Addressing racial bias in risk adjustment: Careful consideration with modeling choices, variable selection, and program design can help reduce the potential of perpetuating inequities.

01 September 2020 - By Farzana Ismail, Chong Wen Ang, Chew Hou Ng

In Malaysia, most insurance and Takaful companies have already started their implementation phase of IFRS 17, but there continues to be ambiguity in interpreting several areas of the IFRS 17 standard.

26 August 2020 - By Stephanie Moench

Is it possible that an involuntary, partial social program could be established to provide long-term care coverage?

26 August 2020 - By Robert Eaton

This article explores in detail two methods of developing reduced benefit options: the future loss ratio neutral approach and the cash flow neutral approach.

26 August 2020 - By Fernando Mesquida, Romina Santoro, Lucila Antonucci, Carolina Artuso

En Milliman hemos decidido investigar la mortalidad producida en Colombia como consecuencia del COVID-19.

25 August 2020 - By Paul Sinnott, Michael Daly, Richard W. Holloway, Wing F. Wong, Chihong An, Wen Yee Lee, Stephen H. Conwill

This report compares and contrasts the various different approaches taken to embedded value reporting across Asian markets and insurers.

24 August 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During July 2020, average accounting discount rates decreased by 37 bps, while annuity purchase rates decreased by 22 bps.

24 August 2020 - By Paul Fulcher, Russell Ward

A panel of senior investment professionals joined Milliman in late July to share thoughts on the economic implications of COVID-19.

24 August 2020 - By Dominic Clark

In the face of economic instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutional investors would be wise to consider sovereign risk carefully, even where not explicitly mandated to do so by regulation.

24 August 2020 - By Michael Paczolt, Jill Rosenblum

Claim analytics using artificial intelligence represents a proven method to reduce claim severity and improve the efficiency of claim-handling resources.

21 August 2020 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

The Internal Revenue Service published Notice 2020-61, providing technical guidance on the special rules relating to funding of single-employer defined benefit pension plans and related benefit restrictions under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

20 August 2020

What is the purpose of an experience study and what benefits does it provide the plan?

19 August 2020 - By Rachel Seale, Billy Onion

The combination of coverage unavailability and future uncertainty prompts companies to look for solutions in captive formations.

19 August 2020 - By Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Ed Morgan, Michal Bobrowski, Aldo Balestreri

How are joint interest rate and credit risk for risk-neutral valuation typically offered by providers of economic scenario generators?

19 August 2020 - By Heerak Basu, Philip Jackson, Sanket Kawatkar, Richard W. Holloway

What are the most recent developments in the life insurance market in Bangladesh?

13 August 2020 - By Derek Newton, Ian Penfold

This report summarises the fourth annual set of Solvency and Financial Condition Reports as they relate to non-life insurers regulated in the UK or Gibraltar and sets out the results of the analyses of these reports.

12 August 2020 - By Peter H. Sun, Chunpu Song, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar

This paper examines the hedge effectiveness of a wide range of Variable Annuity carriers.

12 August 2020 - By Susan J. Forray, Chad C. Karls, Joe Mawhinney

Defense attorneys have gradually become comfortable with virtual depositions, and our analysis indicates they are soon likely to proceed with depositions over virtual platforms that are lengthier and more complex than the virtual depositions conducted to date.

11 August 2020 - By David Koenig, Robert J. Pipich, Michael J. Polakowski

Medicare Advantage organizations face unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

10 August 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In July, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans decreased by $68 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

10 August 2020 - By Nina M. Lantz, Rex Barker, Timothy L. Connor, William Wade

An interim update to our annual study highlights 2020 volatility in funding levels.

07 August 2020 - By Rajish K. Sagoenie, Marcel Kruse

Maandelijkse publicatie van Milliman met een overzicht van de ontwikkelingen op de markten die relevant zijn voor pensioenfondsen.

05 August 2020 - By Radhika Philip

One way higher education institutions are responding to financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is to rethink their staffing models and reduce faculty and staff costs.

05 August 2020 - By Fernando Mesquida, Hector Gueler, Ariel Hojman

What effect will the COVID-19 pandemic have on the life insurance industry in Latin America?

05 August 2020 - By Paul M. Fedchak, Ian Laverty, Uri Sobel

The new framework outlined in Chapter 20 of the Valuation Manual will likely lead to some fundamental changes in the products available in the market.

04 August 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block is estimated to be 274 bps as of the end of July 2020, up 5 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

04 August 2020 - By Nicole Gaspar, Alyssa Lu, Juliet M. Spector

This article discusses modeling and the information that companies can glean from a first principles approach.

04 August 2020 - By Robert D. Bachler, Nicholas Johnson, Brian Reed, Mike Hamachek

This paper summarizes the findings from Milliman’s 2020 stop-loss survey.

04 August 2020 - By Judith-Anne Brelih, Jonathan B. Glowacki

COVID-19 continues to create economic uncertainty, putting pressure on mortgage performance in 2020 Q1 though mortgage losses are not expected to be as severe as during the global financial crisis.

03 August 2020 - By Ian Penfold, Sophie Smyth , George Barrett

In this paper, we discuss how insurers can explore their future exposures to the novel coronavirus through their ORSA.

03 August 2020 - By Stoddard Davenport, Matt Caverly, Katie Matthews

The economic costs (both direct and indirect) of nonmedical opioid use are substantial to U.S. employers, not only due to lost productivity, but also due to increased healthcare expenditures, greater costs for workers’ compensation and disability claims, and difficulty meeting recruitment or production targets in regions that experience shortages of workers.

03 August 2020 - By Clement Bonnet, Brian Colgan, Michael Daly, Sharon Huang, Farzana Ismail, Philip Jackson, Sung Hoon Kim, David Kong, Wen Yee Lee, Atsushi Okawa, Wing F. Wong

This report compares and contrasts life insurance risk-based capital regimes across selected Asian markets, highlights some of the potential implications for businesses arising from the future development of capital regulations and contributes to the wider discussion on the potential impact of changes in regulation on the life insurance industry in Asia.

03 August 2020 - By Scott McEachern, Patrick Cambel

For plan sponsors, being able to pinpoint changes and areas for improvement within the pharmacy benefit manager contract can significantly reduce pharmacy program costs without having to change members’ benefits.

31 July 2020 - By David Koenig, Emily Vandermause, Rebecca Gergen

With 2022 just around the corner, it is important that Medicare Advantage organizations understand the expected impact of the Encounter Data Processing System as the single source of diagnoses for calculating risk scores and the impact this transition may have on their revenue.

30 July 2020

What are some options for amortizing unfunded liability?

30 July 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During June 2020, average accounting discount rates decreased by 11 bps while annuity purchase rates decreased by 18 bps.

29 July 2020 - By Robert Eaton

A predictive analytics tool named TCARE now helps prevent burnout in family caregiving efforts for long-term care.

29 July 2020 - By David Byron, Chris Smith

This paper explores Qualifying Advanced APM Participant status criteria and the actions accountable care organizations can take to ensure they continue to qualify for the 5% bonus, even during a pandemic.

28 July 2020 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr

What are some executive compensation issues that should be examined during these turbulent times?

28 July 2020 - By Rachin Aggarwal, Joanne Buckle

This paper discusses the common definitions of medical inflation, factors driving medical inflation in the short and long term and current medical inflation trends in India.

27 July 2020 - By Amy Nicholson, Sophie Smyth

The Climate Financial Risk Forum have produced a guide to help firms understand the risks that arise from climate change and to provide support on how to integrate these risks into strategy and decision-making processes.

27 July 2020 - By Matthias Kullowatz

This report analyzes more than 3 million policies issued by eight variable annuity writers from 2003 through the first quarter of 2019.

23 July 2020 - By Radhika Philip

How can organizations approach layoffs in ways that mitigate risks to employee engagement and performance?

23 July 2020 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan

Data is a key component when you are attempting to identify opportunities and quantify the impact of innovative ideas.

23 July 2020 - By Barbara Culley, Penny Edlund, Maureen Tressel Lewis

This paper provides information about the pursuit of quality accreditation as an essential investment that can have a positive impact on multiple health plan priorities, including quality of care, member satisfaction, and market viability.

23 July 2020 - By Una Bearden, Alicia Favila

What are some considerations, benefits, and possible pitfalls of retirement planning tools?

21 July 2020 - By Raji Bhagavatula, Mark Goldburd, Jason L. Russ

It’s important to consider the impact of potential legacy losses not only in the context of establishing an appropriate reserve, but to form a view of the load for mass torts needed to price current policy years.

20 July 2020 - By Sinéad Clarke, Andrew Kay, Fred Vosvenieks

Sinead Clarke provides a regulatory and market update, Andrew Kay gives an overview of the latest IFRS 17 developments, and Fred Vosvenieks discusses operational resilience for insurers.

17 July 2020 - By Chris Harner, Michael C. Schmitz

The ramifications of COVID-19 on the mortgage credit risk market are still being assessed, but mortgage defaults are not expected to be as severe as during the global financial crisis, Milliman’s Mike Schmitz and Chris Harner discuss.

15 July 2020 - By Claire Booth, Amy Nicholson, Natasha Singhal

This paper covers the increasing popularity of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments, how ESG investments are selected, risk and strategy considerations for insurers, the influence of ESG factors on product design for both long-term insurance products and health and care products, and ESG disclosure requirements.

15 July 2020 - By Paul Fulcher, Sihong Zhu, Samuel Burgess

This article reviews the Solvency and Financial Condition Reports recently published by major life insurers in the United Kingdom to examine the disclosures made on the impact of COVID-19.

15 July 2020 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Ken Lim

Developments in Thailand non-life insurance for the period from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2020.

14 July 2020 - By Bruce S. Pyenson

Emerging data from around the world suggest that nursing home residents are at exceptionally high risk for contracting COVID-19.

13 July 2020 - By Karthik Yadatore, Abby Camp

Registered Indexed Universal Life could be attractive to consumers seeking cash accumulation universal life and Indexed Universal Life products and who have a greater risk appetite and longer investment horizon.

13 July 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In June, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit plans decreased by $6 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

10 July 2020 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

The estimated funded status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans as measured by the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index rebounded from 66.0% at the end of March 2020 to 71.2% at the end of June 2020.

09 July 2020 - By Neil Christy, Emma Hutchinson, Amy Nicholson, Sihong Zhu

This paper summarises the key feedback from the Prudential Regulation Authority to general and life insurers following their participation in the Insurance Stress Test 2019 exercise and the more recent COVID-19 specific stress test exercise, and discusses the potential implications this feedback could have for life insurers in the United Kingdom in 2020 and beyond.

08 July 2020 - By Rajish K. Sagoenie, Marcel Kruse

Maandelijkse publicatie van Milliman met een overzicht van de ontwikkelingen op de markten die relevant zijn voor pensioenfondsen.

08 July 2020 - By Neil Cantle

What is the value of risk registers and why might we need to reconsider how we use them in the future?

07 July 2020 - By Quincy Hsieh

This article shows our software development experience and test benchmark on Microsoft Azure Storage Account to optimise the disk IO of the API on the cloud.

07 July 2020 - By Eamon Comerford, Paul Fulcher, Rik van Beers, Rosemary Maher

This research paper explores a range of reinsurance strategies that could be utilised by life insurers for capital management purposes.

06 July 2020 - By Ryan Ellsworth

A client enlists Milliman’s help to perform a comprehensive review of their existing retirement program.

06 July 2020 - By David Bahlinger, Paul M. Fedchak, William G. Mehilos

Milliman received responses from 30 carriers for the follow-up Milli-Byte Survey of Life Insurance Product Management and the COVID-19 pandemic.

06 July 2020 - By Eliott Pradat , Hinarii Pichevin, Fabrice Taillieu, Jean-Philippe Boisseau

The experience of COVID-19 will probably trigger a new system for covering operating losses in the event of a health crisis.

02 July 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 269 bps as of the end of June 2020, up 10 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

02 July 2020 - By Jeremy D. Palmer, Christopher T. Pettit, Ian M. McCulla

This report summarizes the calendar year 2019 experience for selected financial metrics of organizations reporting Medicaid experience under the Title XIX Medicaid line of business on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners annual statement.

01 July 2020 - By Casey B. Baldwin, John Rowland

This article provides an overview of the benefit suspension process, identifies considerations for trustees and plan professionals, and shares the lessons learned from previous applications.

01 July 2020

How can I have a plan that provides a sustainable level of benefits?

01 July 2020 - By Kendall Carolissen, Judith Houtepen

This article describes the application of two methods for the detection of potential fraudulent claims in healthcare provider invoices.

01 July 2020 - By Andrew B. Groth

Widespread implementation of autonomous vehicles could be realized within the next decade, and even though there will be fewer driver-induced accidents and truck driver fatalities, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a need for auto liability insurance.

29 June 2020 - By Eamonn Phelan, Joseph Sloan

Milliman consultants discuss recovery and planning for insurers and actuarial models.

29 June 2020 - By Dane Hansen, Andrew Bochner, Emily DeAngelis

This paper examines the reported impact of COVID-19 on preliminary rate filings among six states and D.C. that have been publicly released as of June 15, 2020.

26 June 2020 - By Stacy Koron

Because insurance regulation moves slowly and innovation moves fast, a more flexible framework is needed for insurers to rapidly bring innovative products and services to market.

26 June 2020 - By Emma Hutchinson, Fred Vosvenieks, Paul Fulcher

Solvency II matching is no longer just a theoretical concept but rather a common strategy used by UK insurers with material blocks of unit-linked business to help improve liquidity and balance sheet stability, and better manage market risks.

26 June 2020 - By Jennifer Bolton

For the first time in two decades, Milliman planned to transition to new benefit carriers, including a new medical plan administrator and prescription drug provider.

25 June 2020 - By Manikant Prasad

This paper tries to solve the problem where a system or application, built over R, can communicate to a database with massive data volume, residing on a remote system, to retrieve only the chunks of data needed for current analysis to gain scalability and speed by leveraging the data management and querying speed of the databases.

23 June 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During May 2020, average accounting discount rates decreased by 27 bps, while annuity purchase rates decreased by 10 bps.

22 June 2020 - By Floriane Moy

In a rapidly changing work environment, this article provides an overview of the analytics challenges in the insurance industry.

22 June 2020 - By Susan J. Forray, Chad C. Karls, Joe Mawhinney

Prior to March 15, defense attorneys attended about 47 depositions weekly for every 1000 open claims, but in the second half of March, this decreased to about nine per week.

18 June 2020 - By David Evans

Despite the uncertainty of the moment, the observations from the 2020 Northwest Benefits Survey help clarify some trends that will likely have relevance in the future.

15 June 2020 - By Susan J. Forray, Eric P. Krafcheck, Richard F. Riley, Jr.

Beginning in late March, shortly after stay-at-home orders were widely imposed nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many insurers began voluntarily paying partial premium refunds to personal auto policyholders.

15 June 2020 - By Susan J. Forray, Chad C. Karls

The year 2019 marked a turning point for the medical professional liability industry.

12 June 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Equity markets continued their positive run in May as they made gains for the second month in a row.

11 June 2020 - By Esther Peterson

This article summarizes the components that feed into IRS minimum required contributions and addresses some questions that employers may have.

11 June 2020 - By Stephen R. DiCenso

Even before the coronavirus, obstacles existed that slowed the uptake of insurtech solutions that targeted the reduction of customers’ losses.

11 June 2020 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

The estimated funding status of the 100 largest U.S. public pensions as measured by the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index improved to 71.3%, up from 69.8% at the end of April 2020, and a significant recovery from 66.0% at the end of March 2020.

10 June 2020 - By Pamela M. Pelizzari, Stoddard Davenport, Carol Bazell

What are the challenges of interpreting data, reports, and media coverage surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic?

10 June 2020 - By Zorast Wadia

The COVID-19 pandemic has created economic uncertainty, and this article offers helpful guidelines for corporate pension plan sponsors based on past experience and the market data already in the books through the first quarter of 2020.

09 June 2020 - By Sean Silva, Eric Walters

On April 28, 2020, the Departments of Labor and Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service jointly issued guidance extending certain deadlines related to COBRA continuation coverage.

08 June 2020 - By Paul Fulcher, Sihong Zhu

The Solvency II Prudent Person Principle, Article 132 of the Directive, sets out rules and principles to be followed by (re-)insurers when carrying out asset investment activities.

08 June 2020 - By Stephen George, Joel Brill

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines why, when, and how vaccines are used; highlights the vaccine development pathway; reviews previous experience with viral pandemics; and assesses ways payers can address COVID-19.

08 June 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In May, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans worsened by $17 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

05 June 2020 - By Bruce S. Pyenson, Jim Mulshine

Artificial intelligence along with low-dose CT scans hold promise for the early detection of lung cancer, but there are challenges that come with scaling up this new technology.

04 June 2020 - By Donal McGinley, Bridget MacDonnell, Eamon Comerford

This briefing note gives a high-level overview of how insurers can make better use of internal data to gain insight and drive competitive advantage.

03 June 2020 - By William Wade

What are the potential penalties if a multiemployer pension plan reaches the end of its funding improvement plan or rehabilitation plan period and falls short of the goals?

03 June 2020 - By Joy A. Schwartzman

COVID-19-related costs as a percentage of surplus by company will cover a broad range, depending on the business written, policy terms, reinsurance in place, and leverage of premium to surplus, among other factors.

02 June 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 259 bps as of the end of May 2020, down 12 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

02 June 2020 - By Robert L. Schmidt, Eric Walters

Each year, Milliman produces estimates of retiree health costs that are updated each year.

02 June 2020 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr

This article examines how nonqualified deferred compensation plan (NDCP) sponsors can navigate the rules to ensure their NDCP comply with Code Section 409A with respect to changes in the form of payment elections.

01 June 2020 - By Lukas Snyder, David Mike, Luke Metz, Matthew Hayes, Derek Cole

This paper explores the impact of the Part D Senior Savings Model on patient out-of-pocket costs.

01 June 2020 - By Abhishek Agrawal, Rachin Aggarwal, Jorge Torres, Bridget MacDonnell

What are some innovative healthcare technologies that can be harnessed directly by health insurers in different parts of the world?

29 May 2020 - By Dominik Sznajder, Freek Zandbergen

This briefing note summarises the new design of the Volatility Adjustment (VA) and presents an impact analysis on the effectiveness of the VA under this approach.

28 May 2020 - By Brian Colgan, David Kong, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Developments in the Indonesian life insurance industry for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020

26 May 2020 - By David Bahlinger

Research into the behavioral economics, marketing, and psychology of insurance products is business-critical for insurers.

26 May 2020 - By Claire Booth, Neil Cantle, Dana-Marie Dick, Ian Penfold, Natasha Singhal, Vidyut Vardhan

What metrics are most useful to insurance companies when considering the risks and impacts of climate change?

26 May 2020 - By Susan J. Saip, Carl A. Friedrich

In 2019, Milliman conducted its 13th annual comprehensive survey aimed at addressing universal life and indexed universal life issues to provide carriers with competitive benchmarking to evaluate where they stand relative to their peers.

22 May 2020 - By Grant Camp, Aaron Shapiro

This alert focuses on the multiemployer provisions in Division D of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act.

21 May 2020 - By Deana Bell, Karen Nixon

How could prescription drug rebates at the Point of Sale affect the customer?

21 May 2020 - By Christopher S. Girod, Paul R. Houchens, David M. Liner, Andrew L. Naugle, Doug Norris, Scott A. Weltz

In 2020, the cost of healthcare for a hypothetical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored preferred provider organization plan is $28,653, according to the Milliman Medical Index.

19 May 2020 - By Sheila Jelinek, Suzanne Norman, Michelle Richter

By increasing the number of female advisors, a greater number of clients can benefit from the unique perspectives and life experiences women bring to help people navigate critical financial decisions.

19 May 2020 - By Cory Gusland, Anders Larson, Brian A. Sweatman

For any given provider organization, the impact of COVID-19 on its value-based contracts will depend largely on certain actuarial, legal, and strategic aspects of each agreement.

18 May 2020 - By Stephen R. DiCenso

The P&C insurance industry would benefit from more direct collaboration and communication with its customers.

18 May 2020 - By Thomas Peplow

This article offers a software engineer’s perspective on keeping pace with both the actuarial and software industries.

18 May 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During April 2020, average accounting discount rates decreased by 56 bps, while annuity purchase rates decreased by 51 bps.

18 May 2020 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Emma Hutchinson

The year 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 have seen a range of new issues and trends across the unit-linked market.

15 May 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

After a turbulent March, equity markets had a strong performance in April.

15 May 2020 - By Ryan Rowland

This brief outlines several ideas for employers to consider in connection with their defined benefit pension plans as well as caveats to be aware of as you evaluate your organization’s staffing needs during the COVID-19 crisis.

15 May 2020 - By Jennifer Bolton, Julie Bentz

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, there are even more challenges to communicating about benefits.

15 May 2020 - By Patricia L. Renzi

Pat Renzi discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the life insurance industry and its digital transformation.

15 May 2020 - By Eoin O'Baoighill, Mike Claffey

Based on our analysis of road traffic data, there has been a 70% drop in vehicle volumes since this time last year.

15 May 2020 - By Michael C. Schmitz, Jonathan B. Glowacki, Andrew Netter

This paper discusses COVID-19’s impact on the credit risk transfer market and reflects on the use of capital markets executions and reinsurance executions to meet government-sponsored enterprises’ goals.

15 May 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

In April, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans worsened by $58 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

14 May 2020 - By Greg O. Callahan, Janus Desquitado

Auditing the administration of the pharmaceutical manufacturer rebate program, including dollars paid, is a proven strategy for improving plan sponsor profitability, prescription drug affordability, and the management of pharmacy benefit manager contracts.

14 May 2020 - By Rémi Bellina, Cedric Mea, Floriane Moy, Alexandre Boumezoued, Amal Elfassihi, Eve Titon

This paper explores the potential and the challenge of using BERT, a Natural Language Processing framework, to automate the task of gathering input information and assisting experts for COVID-19 studies.

14 May 2020 - By Dominic Clark, Jeremy Kent, Ed Morgan

This white paper considers the potential impact of International Financial Reporting Standard 17 on insurance product design and pricing in the European markets and contrasts the expected impact on a range of life insurance products.

13 May 2020 - By John Donohue, Thomas M. Carrabine

This article provides an overview of the distribution process and why now may be a good time for trustees to consider moving the defined contribution plans to a daily valued environment.

13 May 2020 - By Radhika Philip, Danny L. Quant

This article focuses on three critical key talent topics in due diligence: assessing contractual obligations, identifying key high-performing talent, and designing retention and termination packages.

13 May 2020 - By Alexandre Boumezoued

The analysis of cohort effects has long fascinated the actuarial community.

13 May 2020 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

The estimated funded status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans as measured by the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index now stands at 69.8%, a far cry from the heady 74.9% at the end of December 2019, but a significant improvement from 66.0% at the end of March.

12 May 2020 - By Kristina Moorhead, Jill S. Herbold, Ben Mori, Mary Pat Stemnock, Katherine Wentworth

The COVID-19 pandemic presents unique challenges for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services program participants.

12 May 2020 - By Lauren Busey

COVID-19 poses challenges for healthcare providers who are managing complex issues around benefits and compensation policies to best support their employees during these hazardous times.

11 May 2020 - By Sinéad Clarke, Eóin Stack

This briefing note explores the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ireland’s insurance industry and how regulatory authorities have responded.

11 May 2020 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Annie Hallum, Catherine E Lewis

This paper outlines the options for Medicaid dental delivery systems, their current usage, and considerations for each option.

11 May 2020 - By Susan J. Forray, Chad C. Karls, Joe Mawhinney

The liability insurance industry experienced a widespread delay in litigation stemming from court closures as stay-at-home orders were implemented in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

11 May 2020 - By Joel E. Stewart, Yutaro Seki

This Multiemployer Alert provides a summary of past multiemployer pension funding relief and recent proposals.

11 May 2020 - By Charles J. Clark, Ginny Boggs

The CARES Act has sweeping implications for both defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans in the U.S., as Milliman’s Charles Clark and Ginny Boggs discuss on this episode of Critical Point.

08 May 2020 - By Brian A. Sweatman, Shyam Kolli

This paper summarizes a few direct contracting strategies observed in the marketplace and identifies key areas for considerations as employers evaluate these options.

07 May 2020 - By Michael C. Meehan

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced risk managers to throw their plans out the window and rethink how to manage their exposures.

07 May 2020 - By Alexandre Boumezoued

This white paper proposes two alternative and complementary views to the EIOPA’s final technical set of advice on the mortality and longevity shock calibration: a prospective approach in the spirit of one-year calculations and a retrospective analysis based on historical data from corrected mortality tables.

07 May 2020

What else can I do to minimize the impact of the market downturn on my contributions?

07 May 2020 - By Daniel J. Perlman

The Transparency in Coverage proposed rule is a reaction to the current opacity of healthcare pricing to most people.

06 May 2020 - By Tony F. Bloemer, Timothy C. Vosicky, Matthew Murray

This white paper is a compilation of key findings from Milliman’s workers’ compensation database.

06 May 2020 - By Christine M. Fleming, Travis J. Grulkowski

Black lung disease presents a significant, long-term liability exposure for coal companies, risk pools, and governments, as Milliman consultants Christine Fleming and Travis Grulkowski discuss in this episode of Critical Point.

05 May 2020 - By Robert Eaton

The 2019 Long-Term Care (LTC) Medical Symposium was a one-day conference that extracted the thinking of leading experts on historical and future trends that will influence LTC insurance claims expectations.

05 May 2020 - By Jeffrey G. Milton-Hall, Thomas D. Murawski, Doug Norris

As knowledge around COVID-19 continues to evolve, much of the industry focus has been on this year’s costs, but this volatile and uncertain environment also presents an extraordinary challenge for health plans developing rates for 2021 commercial coverage.

05 May 2020 - By Carl X. Ashenbrenner, Darren L. Sveom

What is the potential impact that COVID-19 may have on medical professional liability and workers’ compensation claims within long-term care providers?

05 May 2020 - By Matthew D. Timm, Michelle Klein

One innovation that is driving enrollment growth for some Medicare Advantage organizations is the $0 member premium PPO.

04 May 2020 - By Job Prince, Freek Zandbergen

This briefing note summarizes the alternative method to extrapolate long-term interest rates and presents the impact on hedging strategies and an analysis of the main dynamics in comparison to the use of the Smith-Wilson methods and an approach without an Ultimate Forward Rate.

04 May 2020 - By Mohamed Benkhalfa

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, trade credit insurance is being affected adversely on both premiums and claims.

04 May 2020 - By Les Kartchner, Troy J. Pritchett

In a system that ties healthcare coverage so tightly to employment, the implications of so many people losing their healthcare coverage are deadly serious in a pandemic.

01 May 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology1) is estimated to be 271 bps as of the end of April 2020, up 3 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

01 May 2020 - By Judith-Anne Brelih, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Quarterly publication will evaluate default risk of U.S. mortgages delivered to Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ginnie Mae.

30 April 2020 - By Robert Eaton

Learn how physicians benefit from connecting deep learning software with electronic health records from Robert Eaton and Matthew Ko.

30 April 2020 - By Stephanie Peterson, Robert L. Schmidt, Ryan Hart

Health and group benefits news and developments in the United States.

30 April 2020 - By David Bahlinger, Paul M. Fedchak, Ian Laverty, William G. Mehilos

This survey examines how life insurance carriers are currently reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic.

30 April 2020 - By Ladd E. Preppernau

Retirement planning is a long-term undertaking, and the consequences of rules and actions may not be known until years, or even decades, after they are implemented.

30 April 2020 - By Ladd E. Preppernau, Grant Camp

A strong understanding of the historical regulatory perspective can serve to inform the discussion on future regulatory changes designed to improve the long-term health of multiemployer pension plans.

30 April 2020 - By Luke B.G. Roth , Ben Mori, James Pettersson, Joseph Whitley, Carol H. Steckel

While large for-profit healthcare provider entities with existing capital reserves or greater access to capital markets may be able to weather the financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, other small, rural, or safety net provider entities may require additional support to keep their doors open.

29 April 2020 - By Bret Linton, Vicki Mazzie, Vanessa M. Vaag

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act permits a “qualified individual” to certify to the employer that they qualify to elect a coronavirus-related distribution.

29 April 2020 - By Les Kartchner, Sam Bertoch

Contributions charged to employees and retirees are an important aspect of an employer’s health and welfare benefit strategy.

29 April 2020 - By Ken Qian, Ben Johnson, Jenny Jin

This report discusses findings from Milliman’s research on predicting lapse and mortality rates for 10-year and 15-year premium term insurance products from the Milliman Industry Study and Analysis data set.

29 April 2020 - By Tony Dardis, Chloe Lau, Ariel Weis

At the heart of effective risk management is the ability to manage the tail events, and the COVID-19 pandemic is raising some quite profound questions for risk practitioners in the life insurance industry, as Milliman consultants discuss for this episode of Critical Point.

28 April 2020 - By Zorast Wadia, Alan H. Perry, Charles J. Clark

Despite a drop of 94 basis points in discount rates, the private single-employer defined benefit plans of the Milliman 100 companies continued to make funding progress in 2019 due to their stellar investment returns of 17.3%.

27 April 2020 - By Annie Man, Barbara Dewey

What are the health insurance options available to the newly unemployed and how may this affect the size of the Affordable Care Act market?

27 April 2020 - By Brian Colgan, David Kong, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Developments in the Indonesian life insurance industry for the period 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2019

27 April 2020 - By David Byron, Noah Champagne, Blaine Miller, Charlie Mills, Sam Shellabarger

Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations are especially concerned about the potential for 2020 results to deteriorate due to COVID-19.

27 April 2020 - By Stephen J. Koca, Anne C. Kallfisch, Patricia Kinghorn

The personal auto insurance market has taken a unique response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has chosen to reflect the impact of the short-term change in driver behavior.

23 April 2020 - By Hayley M. Rogers, Charlie Mills, Matthew J. Kramer

The deferral and elimination of care during the COVID-19 pandemic could mean a net reduction in medical costs for healthcare payers by at least $75 billion and as much as $575 billion if the deferral and elimination of care continues through the end of 2020.

22 April 2020 - By Josh Dobiac, Bill Matczak, Jeff Greco

This white paper examines the process of constructing discount curves in accordance with Long Duration Targeted Improvements, including the criteria that should be used, and assesses the quality of the different algorithms used to build out a complete curve (including interpolation, extrapolation, and smoothing).

22 April 2020 - By Susan J. Forray, Stephen J. Koca

Modeling medical professional liability costs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbated by tort law changes, variation in effect among specialties, and an apparent reduction in current claims that may prove to be only a delay contributing to an increase in future reported claim frequency.

21 April 2020 - By Melody Craff, Dale N. Skinner, David P. Mirkin, Francesca Hammerstrom, William J. Fox

This Milliman MedInsight brief provides an analytic guide to assist healthcare organizations with COVID-19 pandemic analytics.

21 April 2020

How is the market downturn going to affect my pension contributions?

21 April 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During March 2020, average accounting discount rates increased by 80 bps, while annuity purchase rates increased by 71 bps.

17 April 2020 - By Paul Anderson, Andrew B. Groth

With the COVID-19 pandemic, commercial trucking regulations have been eased while other drivers have been mandated to stay off the road.

17 April 2020 - By Joanne Buckle

The effects of COVID-19 for specific insurers are dependent on benefit packages and policy terms and conditions, as well as government responses and macro-economic factors.

16 April 2020 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

First quarter investment losses have lowered the estimated funding status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans as measured by the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding Index from 74.9% at the end of December 2019 to 66.0% at the end of March 2020.

15 April 2020 - By Jamie Shooks

COVID-19 stands to have an impact on the pet insurance industry, but at this point, it is unclear whether that impact is going to be positive or negative.

15 April 2020 - By Farzana Ismail, Natasha Su Sivarajah, Queenie Chow

This is Milliman’s first Microinsurance Supply-side Study of Asia, gathering the perspectives of the insurance industry regarding the importance of microinsurance, current practices and the enabling environment.

15 April 2020 - By Thomas Bulpitt, Paul Fulcher, Russell Ward

The economy after COVID-19 may look very different from before the crisis and may involve the use of hitherto unfamiliar fiscal and monetary tools.

15 April 2020 - By Neil Rees, Thomas Peplow

Milliman is donating idle compute time to [email protected], a computing project that simulates protein dynamics, including the process of protein folding associated with a variety of diseases.

15 April 2020 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, Darrell D. Spell

This report presents the findings of an analysis focused on isolating and estimating the potential financial impact of COVID-19 on hospital indemnity plans in the United States.

15 April 2020 - By Penny Edlund, Maureen Tressel Lewis

Where can a health plan’s medical management team contribute to the COVID-19 response?

15 April 2020 - By Peter Thies

How does a complex pension plan not only pass nondiscrimination testing but also pass this testing in the future?

14 April 2020 - By Jiang Guanjun, Qiuwen Peng

Local strategies differ when it comes to fighting COVID-19, and it’s too early to know which strategy- contain or delay- works better.

14 April 2020

Equity markets and high yield fixed income securities were down significantly for the quarter as investors reacted to the sudden onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic consequences.

13 April 2020 - By David M. Lang

COVID-19 mandates will require companies with self-insured or high-deductible programs to take a new look at their operations, which may vastly reshape their risk profiles at least for the time being.

13 April 2020 - By Anne C. Kallfisch, Adam Blais

Due to the ongoing economic challenges that businesses are facing due to COVID-19, staffing needs and levels have changed, at least for the short term, and modifications might be needed for the tracking of workers' compensation exposure depending on the level and type of furlough.

13 April 2020 - By Stoddard Davenport, Matthew J. Kramer, Doug Norris, Pamela M. Pelizzari

The COVID-19 pandemic will have far-reaching implications for both short- and long-term healthcare costs in the U.S., as Milliman consultants Pamela Pelizzari, Stoddard Davenport, Doug Norris, and Matt Kramer discuss on this episode of Critical Point.

12 April 2020 - By Kelly S. Coffing, Timothy L. Connor, Nina M. Lantz

COVID-19’s impact goes beyond the market decline. Many industries are being hit hard by a sudden drop-off in industry activity, with concern that the recovery of normal operation could take several years, reducing the contributions coming into multiemployer pension plans.

10 April 2020 - By John H. Rogers, Annie Man, Kyle Hutmaker

While no one knows what will happen with COVID-19 in 2021, in the absence of a vaccine or other curative treatment, Medicare Advantage plans may be advised to consider possible impacts of the disease well into the future.

10 April 2020 - By Mark Goldburd

While many in the insurance industry have concluded that standard policy language does not provide coverage for coronavirus-related business income losses, insurers should brace for court battles ahead.

10 April 2020 - By Andrew H. Dalton, Jeremy Hamilton, Allen J. Schmitz, Juliet M. Spector

This article examines COVID-19 implications on current long-term care (LTC) populations, short-term (2020) and long-term (beyond 2020) projection assumptions, and the effects on the LTC industry as a whole.

10 April 2020 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Alexandra Dowe

Using publicly available data for the 2020 plan year, this article highlights the landscape of dental coverage availablity in the 38 states with the Federally Facilitated Marketplace.

09 April 2020 - By Adam Blais, Christine M. Fleming

The COVID-19 pandemic is raising many questions regarding what is a compensable workers’ compensation claim.

09 April 2020 - By Noah Champagne, Jonah Broulette, Ted Gary

The Direct Contracting model includes a unique feature allowing accountable care organizations the ability to contract with providers.

09 April 2020 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Thomas D. Murawski

This article explores the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dental industry, considering changes in utilization of dental services that could result from the pandemic and its containment efforts as well as the economic ramifications that are already starting to occur and may last for some time.

09 April 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Financial markets had a very turbulent month in March as more countries around the globe went into lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

08 April 2020 - By Katherine Wentworth, Carol H. Steckel, Jeremy Hoffman, Michael C. Cook, Greg J. Herrle

The COVID-19 pandemic is placing historic pressures on our healthcare system and coverage programs alike, and Medicaid programs are a key mechanism states are using to address these challenges.

08 April 2020 - By Jeff Anderson, Mike A. Bergerson

This paper examines COVID-19 implications on current long-term care (LTC) insured populations, short-term (2020) and long-term (beyond 2020) projection assumptions, and the effects on the LTC industry as a whole.

07 April 2020 - By Eric P. Krafcheck, Paul Anderson

After many failed attempts, Michigan legislators finally passed a historic piece of legislation in 2019, Senate Bill No. 1, which will bring sweeping changes to auto insurance in the state starting July 1, 2020.

07 April 2020 - By Sihong Zhu, Paul Fulcher

This briefing paper summarises key amendments made to the updated Supervisory Statement 3/17, and provides our view on how an internal credit assessment framework used by an insurer for examining illiquid and unrated assets, such as equity release mortgages or private debts, can be improved to better align with the regulator's expectations for the Matching Adjustment calculation.

07 April 2020 - By Heerak Basu, Philip Jackson, Sanket Kawatkar, Richard W. Holloway

The onset of COVID-19 and the impact on capital markets pose several challenges for Indian life insurers.

07 April 2020 - By Isabel Stansfield, David Burston, Emma Hutchinson, Stuart Reynolds

This paper summarises the three main delays that EIOPA recommends regulators offer to provide operational relief to undertakings if so needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

07 April 2020 - By Charles J. Clark, Zorast Wadia

In March, the funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans rose by $93 billion as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index.

07 April 2020 - By Robert Eaton

How should actuaries think and spend their time in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic?

07 April 2020 - By Luis O. Maldonado Irizarry, Sylvia Hagin, Brian Regan

Newly available product design options will require actuaries to develop new tools and processes in order to assist Medicare Advantage organizations in bid development.

07 April 2020 - By Ge Bai, Bruce S. Pyenson, Gillian Woollett

Fast, convenient, cheap, accurate, and widely-used COVID-19 tests can help identify both infected individuals who should self-isolate and those who have recovered, pose low contagion risks, and can help others fight the virus.

07 April 2020 - By Delbert Zamora

This article focuses on the CARES Act provision allowing deferment to January 1, 2021, of required defined benefit contributions due in the 2020 calendar year.

07 April 2020 - By Allen M. Klein

This article examines early mortality experience related to COVID-19 and includes a discussion about the difficulties in using this data.

06 April 2020 - By Sean Silva, Reza Vahid

This alert describes Title III (Supporting America’s Health Care System in the Fight Against the Coronavirus), Part II (Access to Healthcare for COVID-19 Patients), Subpart A (Coverage of Testing and Preventive Services), of the CARES Act, which expands upon Division F, Health Provisions, of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

06 April 2020 - By Michael Leitschkis, Russell Ward

This paper provides a brief introduction to proxy modelling and contributes to the current debate around validation via a discussion of a number of the tests that might be contemplated and an illustration of a potential “validation dashboard.”

06 April 2020 - By Andrew Jackson, Brian N. Anderson, Marc Guieb

Pharmacy benefit managers have moved quickly to develop new policies that provide guidance and assurance to their plan sponsor clients and members amid the coronavirus outbreak.

03 April 2020 - By Rachel Soich

With the addition of the global COVID-19 pandemic, an already tumultuous D&O insurance environment has the potential to get much worse.

03 April 2020 - By David Bahlinger, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In 2019, Milliman conducted a variety of research projects to provide insight into the state of the U.S. supplemental insurance market.

03 April 2020 - By Courtney R. White

Providers are uniquely situated to both direct and/or provide care for those in the healthcare delivery system through establishing their own health plans or contracting with existing payers.

02 April 2020 - By Stoddard Davenport

Although it is too early to analyze actual healthcare cost data for those who have been treated for COVID-19 in the United States, historical data from patients who have sought medical attention for influenza or pneumonia may be informative for understanding patient out-of-pocket costs due to treatment for COVID-19.

02 April 2020 - By Scott D. Preppernau

The turmoil the COVID-19 pandemic has caused in financial markets raises profound and potentially long-lasting concerns for pension plan sponsors.

02 April 2020 - By Matthew J. Kramer, Pamela M. Pelizzari, Doug Norris

What are some of the cost drivers that healthcare payers may expect to encounter both now and down the road after we get through the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic?

01 April 2020 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block is estimated to be 268 bps as of the end of March 2020, up 44 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates and an increase in volatility.

01 April 2020 - By Lori E. Julga, Anne C. Kallfisch, Adam Blais

COVID-19 is changing our work environment, and the impacts not only affect our working environment on the job, but also the normal course of existing workers’ compensation claims.

31 March 2020 - By Robert Eaton

Learn about incorporating new technologies and data points in the underwriting ecosystem from Robert Eaton and Paul Ford.

31 March 2020 - By Robert Eaton, Tim F. Kempen, Stephanie Moench, Amy Pahl, Allen J. Schmitz

This report explores key risks and considerations for product innovation using the long-term care insurance industry as a case study.

31 March 2020 - By Susan Philip, Jeremy Cunningham, Mary Pat Stemnock, Ryan Reichel

This brief scopes out the issue of homelessness and housing security and Medicaid’s role in addressing the issue.

31 March 2020 - By William Strange

These FAQs help you thoughtfully consider the potential effects that market volatility resulting from COVID-19 can have on your plan.

30 March 2020 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

During February 2020, average accounting discount rates decreased by 19 bps, while annuity purchase rates decreased by 25 bps.

30 March 2020 - By Barbara Culley, Maureen Tressel Lewis, Andrew L. Naugle

This brief identifies five key payer functions likely to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and actions payers can take to ensure business continuity while enhancing their contributions to the value chain.

30 March 2020 - By Jeff Baker

As employers are facing the harsh reality of implementing layoffs to maintain economic viability, there may be unintended consequences to various retirement programs, especially pension, post-retirement benefit, and other plans.

30 March 2020 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Eve Titon

This paper discusses actuarial perspectives for the calculation of the capital requirement related to catastrophic pandemic mortality as required by the Solvency II regulation.

30 March 2020 - By Tony Dardis, Chloe Lau, Ariel Weis

The COVID-19 pandemic is raising some profound questions for risk practitioners.

30 March 2020 - By Vicki Mazzie

While many non-essential businesses are closing temporarily due to government requirements, even leading to staff layoffs in some cases, essential employers in some regions are experiencing the need to increase staffing levels or putting plans in place to do so in the coming weeks or months.

30 March 2020 - By Chris Harner, David Kirk

Managing cyber risk in emerging markets such as South Africa poses unique challenges, as Milliman’s David Kirk and Chris Harner discuss.

27 March 2020 - By Samantha J. D’Anna, Adam Feller, Matthew Hayes, Kate Herbig, Michelle Klein

This article provides an overview of the Medicare Part D Senior Savings Model and highlights key considerations for plan sponsors.

27 March 2020 - By Joy A. Schwartzman, Philip S. Borba

With the unprecedented challenges presented by the current and future effects of COVID-19, management and directors will need to be cautious with their decisions and consider consequences not presented in prior difficult times.

27 March 2020 - By Kenneth L. Clark, Nick Ortner

This issue brief explores the resources available to help carriers quantify the expected effect of possible Medicare Supplement medical underwriting application changes and considerations.

27 March 2020 - By Paul Anderson, Eric P. Krafcheck, Katherine A. Pipkorn

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, auto insurers may likely see short- and possibly long-term effects in their claims experience.

23 March 2020 - By Sean Silva, John R. Botsford, Ilina Ingolia

This article contains specific information about what the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” covers.

23 March 2020 - By Paul R. Houchens, Hans K. Leida, Lindsy Kotecki

This report looks at the different outcomes for the 50 states from the Affordable Care Act in terms of reduction of the uninsured rate, cost, and availability of health insurance coverage.

23 March 2020 - By Ladd E. Preppernau, Carrie Vaughn

On the heels of the dot-com bust from 2000-2002 and the global financial crisis in 2008, can multiemployer plans survive a third “once-in-a-lifetime” event?

20 March 2020 - By Roland Steinmann , Michael J. McCord, Katie Biese, Nidhi Kushwah, Levani Kvariani

This study covers farm characteristics, practices, and mortality experience among smallholder dairy farmers.

20 March 2020 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Equity markets started the month strongly as they initially shrugged off concerns about the coronavirus epidemic.

20 March 2020 - By Susan Philip, Susan E. Pantely

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, could telehealth have the potential to replace some in-person services and better triage care based on needs?

19 March 2020 - By Matthias Kullowatz

This report discusses findings from Milliman’s research into policyholder behavior for variable annuity contracts with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit riders.

19 March 2020 - By Tim E. Hill, Susan J. Saip

Milliman conducted a new broad-based survey on multi-year guaranteed annuities, capturing historical data for key industry competitors, as well as company perspectives on a range of issues pertaining to these products into the future.

18 March 2020 - By Nicholas Johnson, Christopher Kunkel, Annie Hallum

With calendar year 2021 Medicare Advantage (MA) deadlines approaching, state Medicaid agencies and MA plans offering Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans must quickly determine how to fulfill new integration requirements mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.

17 March 2020 - By Susan J. Forray

Healthcare providers, facilities, and MPL writers can expect direct and indirect impacts from the coronavirus pandemic—with the indirect impact possibly proving more impactful over the long term.

16 March 2020 - By Fred Vosvenieks

Firms need to be thinking and acting with dynamism to manage the here and now of the global coronavirus pandemic and plan effectively for multiple future scenario pathways.

13 March 2020 - By Stephanie Moench, Shawn Stender

This article explores three possible future paths for long-term care (LTC) insurance funding and the associated implications for the private LTC industry.

13 March 2020 - By Jeff Anderson, Mike A. Bergerson

What are the advantages and disadvantages of long-term care policy buyouts from various stakeholder perspectives?