SOA Podcasts - Society of Actuaries

Health Section: Navigate through Risk-Based Capital with Success

Risk-based capital (RBC) is a method of measuring the minimum amount of capital appropriate for an insurer to support its overall business operations, taking into consideration the insurer’s size and risk profile. Today’s focus is on the Health RBC which is a standardized way to aggregate risk using a capital formula applied across insurers and for the public record.

Health Section: Better Care Through Understanding the Customer Not Just the Patient

Learn how healthcare actuaries are going beyond claims and enrollment data to drive clinical, financial and operational performance by leveraging new data sources and machine learning. 

Emerging Topics Community: The Tests Never End: An Overview of Software Testing Methods for Actuaries - Part 3 of 3

This is the third and final installment of a 3-part series where Joe Alaimo and Andy Rallis discuss the different types of software testing, what they are, how they are performed and ways that they apply to the software development that actuaries are involved in.  Full Description: Have you ever been involved with a software development project?  One thing that all software development projects have in common is testing.  You may have been involved in some of the testing of these systems o...

Health Section: Hot Topics and Trends in Group & Worksite Supplemental Health Products

Dave Dillon interviews Kristi Hardenbergh, Actuary with Sydney Consulting Group, about group and worksite supplemental health products. Learn about the different types of products offered, as well as how the market is changing due to hybrid work, the rising “gig economy”, new product offerings, and attempts to enhance the consumer experience.

Actuary of the Future Section: Speculative Spectacular: Where Fiction Meets Reality Part 3

Explore where fiction meets reality. In Part 3 of the “Speculative Spectacular” series, Nate Worrell talks with award winners from the 14th Speculative Fiction contest and contest coordinator, Gary Lange, about how fiction writing improves actuarial communication. Then we look at their visions of possible futures, discussing the real world implications related to societal issues and cultural trends.  In ‘Actuaries from Mars’, by Nate Worrell, a visitor from the red planet arrives with an i...

Actuary of the Future Section: Speculative Spectacular: Where Fiction Meets Reality Part 2

Explore where fiction meets reality. In Part 2 of the “Speculative Spectacular” series, Nate Worrell talks with award winners from the 14th Speculative Fiction contest about how fiction writing improves actuarial communication. Then we look at their visions of possible futures, discussing the real world implications related to Artificial Intelligence and a world run by algorithms.   In “Tea Leaves”, Bethany Coffee searches for a soul in a system that decides how risky you are.  A.I. based ...

Health Section: Disparities Between Location and Health

Jackie Lee talks with research authors, Joan Barrett and Stephanie Entzminger, about how where you live impacts your health. Listen to hear more about their research about this SDOH and how it impacts actuaries.

Actuary of the Future Section: Speculative Spectacular: Where Fiction Meets Reality Part 1

Explore where fiction meets reality. In this episode of the “Speculative Spectacular” series, Nate Worrell talks with award winners from the 14th Speculative Fiction contest about how fiction writing improves actuarial communication. Then we look at their visions of possible futures, discussing the real world implications related to continuous personal health tracking. In “Just Don’t Look at It” by Chris Fievoli, a continuous insurance premium suddenly spikes, indicating immediate danger. ...

Marketing and Distribution Section: Trends in Distribution and Marketing of Affluent Insurance Market

Financial Reporting Section: Drink in the Details Part Three: IFRS 17 and Iced Tea

This podcast is the third in our series “Drink in the Details,” featuring casual discussions with experts on a variety of financial reporting topics. Join Chris Whitney, as he discusses IFRS 17 with Amal Rajwani and Doug Van Dam over a glass of iced tea.

Health Section: Pet Insurance

Join Jackie Lee and Philip Wright as they talk about Pet Insurance. They discuss the similarities and differences between Pet Insurance and Health Insurance. Listen to gain a better understanding of the industry and its future.

Health Section: Enrollee Choice

Jackie Lee talks with Geof Hileman about the SOA research titled “Modeling Effects of Enrollee Choice.” In this discussion, we cover simplistic markets and gradually make the markets more sophisticated to show the impacts of enrollee choice and tools that help consumers make decisions, focusing on the ACA market.

The Tests Never End: An Overview of Software Testing Methods for Actuaries – Part 2 of 3

This is the second in a 3-part series where Joe Alaimo and Andy Rallis discuss the different types of testing, what they are, how they are performed and ways that they apply to the software development that actuaries are involved in.  Full Description: Have you ever been involved with a software development project?  One thing that all software development projects have in common is testing.  You may have been involved in some of the testing of these systems or maybe you were in meetings...

Long Term Care Section: Dementia Facilities and the Effects of Covid - A Case Study in Georgetown Living

In this podcast, a follow-up to our April 23, 2021 discussion, Dr. Char Hu, co-founder of Georgetown Living (link: https://www.gtownliving.com), talks about rebalancing facility goals post-pandemic and staying true to GL’s commitments to clients, families and employees. 

Health Section: Deep Dive Beyond Healthcare Claims: Uses of Real-time Clinical Data

On this episode, Dave chats with Kelvin Wursten, Senior Director, Data Science at PointClickCare on all things clinical data. Listen in to hear more on how the industry leverages the direct use of clinical healthcare data, the common challenges, and the observations Kelvin has made moving from a traditional actuarial role at a health insurer to now leading the data team at PointClickCare.

Emerging Topics Community: The Tests Never End: An Overview of Software Testing Methods for Actuaries – Part 1 of 3

This is the first in a 3-part series where Joe Alaimo and Andy Rallis discuss the different types of testing, what they are, how they are performed and ways that they apply to the software development that actuaries are involved in.  Full Description: Have you ever been involved with a software development project?  One thing that all software development projects have in common is testing.  You may have been involved in some of the testing of these systems or maybe you were in meetings ...

Health Section: A Conversation with John Bertko

Dave Dillon interviews Covered California’s John Bertko about a wide-range of health insurance and healthcare reform topics

Long Term Care Section: Predictive Analytics in the LTC Industry

Ali Ahmadi of TCARE discusses his company’s efforts to use predictive analytics to support informal caregivers. Ali also discusses other ways how the LTC may change over time to utilize emerging technologies.

Health Section: Telehealth Reducing Costs?

Have you ever assumed that telehealth should reduce health care costs for health plans? Listen in as Jackie Lee and Kirsten Staveland discuss how this assumption may not be accurate. They also discuss innovations in telehealth that are emerging more prominently in the healthcare space that could impact actuaries in their jobs.

Long Term Care Section: A Recap of the 2022 ILTCI Conference

John discusses the recent ILTCI conference with the chair of the actuarial track, Linda Chow, and how to people can get involved with the conference in the future.

Health Section: Health Actuarial Work in An Integrated Delivery System

Dave and Andrew discuss the similarities and differences in actuarial work between working for an integrated delivery system (or payer/provider combinations) vs. a traditional insurance company/health plan, including advantages, challenges and tips for new actuaries starting work at a payer/provider organizations. 

Emerging Topics Community: Anders vs. Shea, Part 4: A Champion is Crowned

It’s time for the big reveal as we find out which of our two podcast hosts prevailed in the hotly contested 2021 Milliman Health Practice Hackathon. Was Shea able to leverage his years of machine learning and predictive analytics experience to guide his team to the victory? Or was Anders poised for a “student has become the teacher” situation after absorbing Shea’s wisdom over the last six years of recording podcasts together? In addition to discussing the much-awaited final score, the hosts...

Health Section: Evaluating Healthcare Innovation

Solutions in healthcare to drive better care at a reduced cost have grown significantly over the past 5 years.  Dave Dillon talks to Ed Pudlowski about the role health actuaries play to bring credibility to the claims made by these solution providers.

Emerging Topics Community: Anders vs. Shea, Part 3: Shea's Story

Anders is back in the host chair as we hear from Shea and Tanner Boyle, who were on a competing team in the 2021 Milliman Health Practice Hackathon. Similar to the discussion in part two of the series, today’s discussion touches on high level topics like strategy, time management, and organization, but also gets into the weeds with some of the decisions Shea and Tanner’s team made regarding feature engineering, algorithms, and ensembling. Shea and Tanner talk about what went well for their t...

Health Section: Heavy Metal Music

For pricing actuaries working in the individual exchange market, the metallic plans created by the ACA – bronze, silver, gold, and platinum – have been anything but simple. Do new state mandates around actuarial sloping assumptions create better deals for customers, or do they make an already confusing problem even more challenging to understand?

Emerging Topics Community: Section Elections: How to Become an SOA Section Council Member

Now is the time to become a candidate for an SOA Section Council. Current Section Council members Joe Alaimo and Kevin Duran walk you through why and how to volunteer for this important leadership position.

Reinsurance Section: Reinsurance Section Spotlight: Mike Green

Mike Green, FSA, MAAA, Vice Present at Canada Life Re sharing his insights with podcast host Jing Lang, FSA, FCIA, MAAA, FLMI.

Social Insurance & Public Finance Section: Leadership Series interview with Tonya Manning.

Tonya Manning, Buck’s Wealth Practice Leader & Chief Actuary, recent DOL appointee to Advisory Council and Former SOA and IAA President is interviewed. Tonya discusses her career, leadership at two major actuarial firms, public pensions, and her actuarial volunteer work.

Emerging Topics Community: Anders vs. Shea, Part 2: Anders' Story

Shea plays the role of host today and talks shop with Anders and Nick Vander Heyden, who competed as part of a team in the 2021 Milliman Health Practice Hackathon. The gang covers a wide range of topics, including team strategy and organization, exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, and choice of algorithm. Although Anders and Nick were generally pleased with their team’s performance, they discuss what they wish they had done differently and what they would have done to refine thei...

Health Section: Changing Landscape of Medicaid Pharmacy

In this episode, Dave Dillon interviews Dustin Ryan, FSA, MAAA about the everchanging landscape of Medicaid pharmacy.  They discuss how the states pulling the levers in the pharmacy world to lower their drug expenditures.  They dive into the impact of state impacts on MCOs and the future of pharmacy.

M&A and Margaritas

"Drink in the Details” is a podcast series featuring casual discussions with experts on a variety of financial reporting topics. In this episode, Chris Whitney and his guests Liz Millard and Kevin Piotrowski enjoy margaritas as they discuss financial reporting and valuation considerations associated with Mergers and Acquisitions.

Emerging Topics Community: Anders vs. Shea, Part 1: Setting the Stage

Shea Parkes, FSA, MAAA, and Anders Larson, FSA, MAAA, are joined by the organizers of the 2021 Milliman Health Practice Hackathon: Riley Heckel, FSA, MAAA, Austin Barrington, FSA, MAAA, and Phil Ellenberg.

Retirement Section: Applying Predictive Analytics to Pension Plans

This podcast interviews actuaries David Cantor and Kailan Shang, co-authors of the SOA research report titled Predictive Analytics: A Primer for Pension Actuaries. David and Kailan explain how pension actuaries can apply predictive analytics to forecast outcomes for defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

Product Development Section: Introduction to Inforce Management

Chris Ryan and Jennie McGinnis discuss what Inforce Management means and provide an update on the Inforce Management Subgroup and its upcoming activities.

Health Section: A Conversation with CCIIO: Jeff Wu

Dave Dillon interviews Jeff Wu who is the deputy director for policy of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO). Dave and Jeff discuss a wide-range of Affordable Care Act topics including Open and Special Enrollment periods, risk adjustment, induced demand factors, CSRs, and 1332 waivers.

Social Insurance & Public Finance Section: The new ASOP 4 and how we got here: A Magical History Tour

We review the history of guidance on both market based disclosures and funding policy, and describe how the new ASOP 4 addresses both those topics.

Reinsurance Section: Tiffany Norman, career development in reinsurance

Tiffany Norman, FSA, MAAA, Senior Vice President at Hannover Re sharing her insights with podcast host Jing Lang, FSA, FCIA, MAAA, FLMI.

Health Section: Member Advocacy

Join Jackie Lee as she sits down with Mike Pacolay to discuss his article on the utilization of member advocates as a cost savings tool for employers to help lower claims costs for its employees.  With confusion at nearly every turn, consumers become some combination of scared, confused, angry and frustrated, but with improved transparency and guidance within the complex system, perhaps we can improve consumer health literacy.

Emerging Topics: Introducing the Emerging Topics Community

Learn about the SOA's new emerging topics community.

Emerging Topics Community: Introducing the Emerging Topics Community

Learn about the SOA's new emerging topics community.

Health Section: Structured Reinsurance for Health Products

Dave Dillon interviews Dave Rowbottom on the topic of capital motivated reinsurance for health products – how it works, how it is evaluated, where it is commonly used, and what is involved in underwriting and implementing one of these reinsurance programs.

Health Section: Building a Transformation Change Office with Guest Roger Bauer

Roger Bauer, Executive Director of the Transformation Change Office for the Atlanta market of Kaiser Permanente, speaks with host David Dillon, FSA, MAAA, about building a Transformation Change Office.  In this wide-ranging discussion, they discuss a TCO’s purpose and structure, and they further delve into project prioritization, example of success, approaches to reporting, and key success factors.

Long Term Care Section: Long-Term Care Insurance Mortality and Lapse Study

Warren Jones discusses the efforts that went into the recent mortality and lapse study developed by the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries Research Institute.

Health Section: MC3 Clinical Programs

Continuing with the Managed Care 3.0 Strategic Initiative, Jackie Lee talked with Ian Duncan and Lara Dodo about  Newtopia and its case study. Cardiometabolic disease continues to be a growing public health challenge and a major economic burden for Americans.  This podcast discusses one behavior-change solution that has demonstrated success in a health plan randomized control trial. 

Health Section: MC3 Gene Therapy

Jackie Lee and Wendy Kwan discuss gene therapy technology and some of the challenges US healthcare payers will face modeling for the larger upfront costs created by such treatments.

Long Term Care Section: A Conversation on Public LTC Proposals

Join us as we discuss recent proposals of public programs that help address the long-term care needs of the population. 

Health Section: Rural Health Care

Jackie Lee talks with Elaine Corrough about her research for the Health Section’s Managed Care 3.0 Case Study series on access to healthcare in rural areas. It highlights several programs local health plans have implemented in collaboration with various community partners with notable success.

Long Term Care Section: NAIC - Bringing Clarity to LTC Rate Increase Notifications

Hear an update from state regulators Anna Van Fleet and Shannen Logue regarding the NAIC’s efforts to develop an LTCi Reduced Benefit Options Regulator Checklist. Why is it needed, what do they hope it will achieve, and when will it be available for states to use?

Health Section: Managed Care 3.0 Case Studies

Jackie Lee & Karen Shelton discuss several case studies that are shaping the future of healthcare as part of the strategic initiative 18|11. They review the categories and history behind each of the different innovations that have generated results that will positively impact our health care costs. These include rural health care, health literacy, gene therapy funding and provider reimbursement. 

Actuary of the Future: Passing the Torch – a meeting with the AOF Interns Taylor and Steven

Tony Johnson speaks with Steven Gee and Taylor Geppert. Steven and Taylor were the 2021 Actuary of the Future Section Interns and share their insights on the experience.