A pension is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments. A pension may be a "defined benefit plan", where a fixed sum is paid regularly to a person, or a "defined contribution plan", under which a fixed sum is invested that then becomes available at retirement age. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is usually paid in regular amounts for life after retirement, while the latter is typically paid as a fixed amount after involuntary termination of employment before retirement.
A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations.
Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in insurance, pension, finance, investment and other industries and professions. More generally, actuaries apply rigorous mathematics to model matters of uncertainty.
The International Actuarial Association (IAA) is a worldwide association of local professional actuarial associations.
The Cigna Group is a for-profit American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and services, the majority of which are offered through employers and other groups. Cigna is incorporated in Delaware.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. It contains rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans. ERISA was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries by:
The term managed care or managed healthcare is used in the United States to describe a group of activities intended to reduce the cost of providing health care and providing American health insurance while improving the quality of that care. It has become the predominant system of delivering and receiving American health care since its implementation in the early 1980s, and has been largely unaffected by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
...intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including: economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care; programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services; increased beneficiary cost sharing; controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive management of high-cost health care cases. The programs may be provided in a variety of settings, such as Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations.
National health insurance (NHI), sometimes called statutory health insurance (SHI), is a system of health insurance that insures a national population against the costs of health care. It may be administered by the public sector, the private sector, or a combination of both. Funding mechanisms vary with the particular program and country. National or statutory health insurance does not equate to government-run or government-financed health care, but is usually established by national legislation. In some countries, such as Australia's Medicare system, the UK's National Health Service and South Korea's National Health Insurance Service, contributions to the system are made via general taxation and therefore are not optional even though use of the health system it finances is. In practice, most people paying for NHI will join it. Where an NHI involves a choice of multiple insurance funds, the rates of contributions may vary and the person has to choose which insurance fund to belong to.
Utilization management (UM) or utilization review is the use of managed care techniques such as prior authorization that allow payers, particularly health insurance companies, to manage the cost of health care benefits by assessing its appropriateness before it is provided using evidence-based criteria or guidelines.
The Conference of Consulting Actuaries (CCA) is a professional society of actuaries engaged in consulting in the United States and Canada, as opposed to those employed by insurance companies. CCA members assist their clients with respect to pension, health, and other employee benefit plans; life insurance; and property and casualty insurance.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc. was a global consulting firm that merged in January 2010 with Towers Perrin to form Towers Watson. The firm's services included managing the cost and effectiveness of employee benefit programs; developing attraction, retention and reward strategies; advising pension plan sponsors and other institutions on optimal investment strategies; providing strategic and financial advice to insurance and financial service companies; and delivering related technology, outsourcing and data services. Its principal operating subsidiary, Watson Wyatt & Company, was a human capital consulting firm with operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. Its corporate offices were in Arlington, Virginia.
GASB 45, or GASB Statement 45, is an accounting and financial reporting provision requiring government employers to measure and report the liabilities associated with postemployment benefits. Reported OPEBs may include post-retirement medical, pharmacy, dental, vision, life, long-term disability and long-term care benefits that are not associated with a pension plan. Government employers required to comply with GASB 45 include all states, towns, education boards, water districts, mosquito districts, public schools, and all other government entities that offer OPEB and report under GASB.
Mercer is an American consulting firm founded in 1945. It is one of the four operating subsidiaries of global professional services firm Marsh McLennan. Mercer is headquartered in New York City with offices in 43 countries and operations in 130 countries. The company primarily provides human resources and financial services consulting services to its clients.
Wendell Milliman (1905–1976) was a founder of Milliman, Inc., formerly Milliman & Robertson, one of the largest actuarial and business consulting firms in the world. Starting as the Pacific Northwest's only independent consulting actuary in a small two-room Seattle office in 1947, Milliman co-founded, with Stuart Robertson, a company that grew to encompass offices across the nation, first on the West Coast, then in Milwaukee, and then in more than 30 locations throughout the country. It also has offices in 16 countries across the globe. Based on a profit-sharing model that brings together independent consultants under a common corporate banner, Milliman, Inc. looked for and found new opportunities to provide actuarial services to insurers and pension planners as the United States dramatically changed and its economy grew during the post-World War II years.
Stuart A. Robertson (1918–2005) was co-founder, with Wendell Milliman, of Milliman, Inc., formerly Milliman & Robertson, which would grow to become one of the largest actuarial and business consulting firms in the world, encompassing more than 30 locations throughout the United States with offices in 16 other countries. Robertson, who attended the University of Washington before becoming an actuary, joined Milliman in the first consulting actuarial practice in the Pacific Northwest in 1950. Following Milliman's retirement in 1971, Robertson served as CEO and chairman until his retirement in 1983.
Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) is a public pension plan of the State of Texas. Established in 1937, TRS provides retirement and related benefits for those employed by the public schools, colleges, and universities supported by the State of Texas and manages a $180 billion trust fund established to finance member benefits. More than 1.6 million public education and higher education employees and retirees participate in the system. TRS is the largest public retirement system in Texas in both membership and assets and the sixth largest public pension fund in America. The agency is headquartered at 1000 Red River Street in the capital city of Austin.
Segal is one of the largest independent human resources and employee benefits consulting firms in North America. Privately held and employee-owned, Segal has offices in 25 cities and 1,100 employees serving clients worldwide. The firm is headquartered in New York City.
Informally, a Cadillac plan is any unusually expensive health insurance plan, usually arising in discussions of medical-cost control measures in the United States. The term derives from the Cadillac automobile, which has represented American luxury goods since its introduction in 1902, and as a health care metaphor dates to the 1970s. The term gained popularity in the early 1990s during the debate over the Clinton health care plan of 1993, and was also widespread during debate over possible excise taxes on "Cadillac" plans during the health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration.
Aon Hewitt was a provider of human capital and management consulting services headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois in the United States. From 500 offices in 120 countries, it provided consulting, outsourcing, and reinsurance brokerage services. The "Aon Hewitt" brand and legal entities have now been absorbed into the "Aon" business, leaving obsolete the names "Hewitt" and "Aon Hewitt."
Alexander Forbes Group Holdings, commonly referred to as Alexforbes is a diversified financial services organisation. The company is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a presence in two other countries on the African continent: Namibia and Botswana and in the Channel Islands through an offshore Jersey operation.
