I.I.I. chief actuary Jim Lynch previews the Workers Compensation Research Institute’s (WCRI) Annual Issues & Research conference: This time last year, property/casualty insurers worried how the Affordable Care Act’s rollout would affect workers compensation insurance. The debate seemed to disappear as the law took hold, but research to be unveiled at a March workers compensation...
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Cyber Value-At-Risk
Measures and methods widely used in the financial services industry to value and quantify risk could be used by organizations to better quantify cyber risks, according to a new framework and report unveiled at the World Economic Forum annual meeting. The framework, called “cyber value-at-risk” requires companies to understand key cyber risks and the dependencies...
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On Moral Hazard in Health Insurance
As we look ahead to tonight’s State of the Union address, I.I.I. chief actuary Jim Lynch brings us a book review on the perennial issue of health insurance: When Target wants to sell more shirts, it puts them on sale. The retailer knows that the less something costs, the more likely you are to buy it. Health...
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Joe Paduda’s Tuesday catch-up
Here’s what happened over the MLK weekend… Kudos to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D Minn) for her efforts to reduce Medicare drug prices. She introduced a bill that would allow CMS to negotiate drug prices, a seeming no-brainer. Reasons to support the bill: reduces Medicare recipients’ drug costs reduces taxpayers costs reduces the Federal deficit Reasons to...
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Congressional Republicans Take Another Swing At Obamacare
Taking a swing at President Obama’s biggest policy achievement, the Affordable Care Act, is at the top of the agenda for the new Republican Congressional majority. On Thursday, the House will debate, and likely pass, a bill that would make a change in Obamacare. It would raise the law’s definition of full-time work from 30...
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Worksite Wellness Clinics and Reduction of ER Visits: Good News for Employer Health Plan Costs
Emergency room visits and costs are on the rise in the U.S. and expected to get worse with Obamacare according to a recent report which shows people with Medicaid (many of whom have obtained coverage under Obamacare) use ER more often than uninsured individuals. Complicating this picture are the ridiculous high costs of ER visits...
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Harvard protests health insurance costs – for a couple of very good reasons
Tt’s a delicious irony; academics at one of the nation’s top universities, averaging a cool $200k income, some of whom championed parts of health reform and PPACA, are whining about deductibles of $250, $20 copays for office visits, and out-of-pocket maximums of $1500 for individuals. Oh, the tragedy! Yes, part of the cost increase may be...
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Joe Paduda’s Predictions for work comp in 2015
Once again I’ll head out on a limb with saw firmly in hand… 1. Aetna will NOT be able to sell the Coventry work comp services division. I’ll double down on last year’s prediction: even if the giant health plan wants to dump work comp, the network – which is where all the profit is...
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Winter Weather and Cat Losses
With frigid temperatures and snow expected to fall around the New York City area and other parts of the United States this week, it’s a good time to review how winter storms can impact catastrophe losses. For insurers, winter storms are historically very expensive and the third-largest cause of catastrophe losses, behind only hurricanes and...
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Problem With Health Care Not Insurers, But Hospitals, says Steve Brill
While reporting on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, journalist Steven Brill was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition that required heart surgery. “There I was: A reporter who had made hospital presidents and hospital executives and health care executives and insurance executives sweat because I asked them all kinds of questions about their salaries...
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