The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) elected Alanna M. Lavelle, AHFI, MS, CPC, director of Special Investigations of WellPoint, Inc., as the new chair of the board of directors.
Lavelle succeeds Jack Price, former Chief Security Officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
Lavelle joined WellPoint in 2004, after serving 25 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation where she managed a large health care fraud task force and served as the supervisory special agent FBI liaison for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), working closely with the CDC on bioterrorism matters in the post 9/11 era. Currently she manages the Special Investigative Unit for the Southeast and Central Regions of WellPoint, Inc., representing 13 million covered lives in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin and Virginia.
In other industry news:
The board of directors for Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) approved payment of $805 million in dividends to the company's individual life policyholders in 2013. The allocation is the largest-ever distribution to Guardian's participating policyholders.
In addition, the Dividend Interest Rate, which is the investment component of the dividend, will be 6.65 percent in 2013.
The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, Inc. (GIAC) upgraded and redesigned its annuity customer website My Annuity Manager. The new site replaces the My Account Manager site.
The improvements include easier access to:
- Annuity contract information;
- Personal info;
- Transaction history;
- Systematic withdrawal details;
- Annuity payment details;
- Printable forms, statements and tax documents.
GIAC also made enhancements to its investment option line-up for plan sponsors who utilize The Guardian Advantage or The Guardian Choice as the funding vehicle for their qualified retirement plans.
The Guardian Advantagefund line-up will expand by 27 new investment options for a total of 101 investment options. The Guardian Choicefund line-up will add 33 options for a total of 111. The investment options provide exposure to new market sectors and are managed by some of the largest and well-recognized investment managers in the industry.
Plan sponsors now have the option of selecting investments from several new asset classes and mutual fund families and will include both actively managed and index-based funds. The enhanced asset class lineup includes Large Cap Blend, Large Cap Growth, Multi Sector Bond, Emerging Markets Bond, Target Date, Index, Socially Responsible and Sector funds.
TechLeaders created an advisory board of financial industry executives to enhance dialogue between technology providers and users for the 2013 annual broker-dealer technology conference.
The board will play an influential role in developing the conference panels, seminars and awards, ensuring that the broker-dealer industry's latest developments, trends, and achievements in technology are showcased.
The 
