Reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in our Crawford Claims Solutions segment, which are included in total Company revenues, were $20.5 million in 2019 compared to $19.0 million in 2018. The 2019 increase was due to an increased use of third parties in the U.K. in 2019 compared to 2018.
Our Crawford TPA Solutions segment, which operates under the Broadspire brand globally, reported operating earnings of $27.2 million, or 6.9% of revenues before reimbursements in 2019, as compared to $36.9 million, or 9.1% of revenues before reimbursements in 2018. The decrease in operating earnings for the 2019 period resulted from lower revenues, which were not fully offset by lower direct expenses.
Overall, there was a decrease in revenues in the Crawford Claims Solutions segment in 2018 compared with 2017. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in weather-related activity in the U.S. as a result of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria that were present in the prior year.
The Garden City Group service line disposal in June 2018 represents a $46.3 million reduction, or 13.2% negative variance in Crawford Specialty Solutions revenues, respectively, in the 2018 period compared to 2017.
Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2019 consisted of $16.2 million held in the U.S. and $35.6 million held in our foreign subsidiaries. All of the cash and cash equivalents held by our foreign subsidiaries is available for general corporate purposes. The Company generally does not provide for additional U.S. and foreign income taxes on undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries because they are considered to be indefinitely reinvested. The Company's current expectation is that such earnings will be reinvested by the subsidiaries or will be repatriated only when it would be tax effective or otherwise strategically beneficial to the Company, such as if a very unusual event or project generated profits significantly in excess of ongoing business reinvestment needs. If such an event occurs, we would analyze the potential tax impact or our anticipated investment needs in that region and provide for taxes for earnings that are not expected to be permanently reinvested. Other historical earnings and future foreign earnings necessary for business reinvestment are expected to remain permanently reinvested and will be used to provide working capital for these operations, fund defined benefit pension plan obligations, repay non-U.S. debt, fund capital improvements, and fund future acquisitions. We currently believe that funds expected to be generated from our U.S. operations, along with potential borrowing capabilities in the U.S., will be sufficient to fund our U.S. operations and other obligations, including our funding obligations under our U.S. defined benefit pension plan, for the foreseeable future and, therefore, except in limited circumstances such as those described above, do not foresee a need to repatriate cash held by our foreign subsidiaries in a taxable transaction to fund our U.S. operations.
Cash provided by investing activities increased by $88.3 million in 2018, from a use of $81.9 million in 2017 to $6.4 million provided in 2018. This increase was primarily due to proceeds from the Garden City Group disposal in 2018 and $36.0 million cash paid for the acquisition of WeGoLook, LLC in 2017. Cash used to acquire property and equipment and capitalized software, including capitalization of costs for internally developed software, was $30.0 million in 2018 compared with $44.9 million in 2017. The higher amount in 2017 also included costs incurred for the consolidation and relocation of our Atlanta Support Center and other investments in technology, including Garden City Group expenditures.
Accounts receivable decreased by $2.9 million, or $5.9 million excluding foreign currency exchange impacts, in 2019 compared with 2018. The decrease was primarily due to decreased receivables within Crawford Claims Solutions.
As of December 31, 2019, deferred revenues related to lifetime claim handling arrangements approximated $39.4 million. If the rate at which we close cases changes, the amount of revenues recognized within a period could be affected. In addition, given the competitive environment in which we operate, we may be unable to raise our prices to offset the additional expense associated with handling longer-lived claims should such case closing rates change. The change in our first-year case closing rates over the last ten years has ranged from a decrease of 3.3% to an increase of 2.2%, and has averaged a decrease of 0.2%. A 1.0% change is a reasonably likely change in our estimate based on historical data. Absent an increase in per-claim fees from our clients, a 1.0% decrease in claim closing rates for lifetime claims would have resulted in the deferral of additional revenues of approximately $1.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, $1.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, and $1.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. If our average claim closing rates for lifetime claims increased by 1.0%, we would have recognized additional revenues of approximately $1.3 million for each of the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017.
the duration of our pension plan liabilities, which drives the investment strategy we can employ with our pension plan assets;
Pension expense is also affected by the accounting policy used to determine the value of plan assets at the measurement date. We apply our expected return on plan assets using fair market value as of the annual measurement date. The fair market value method results in greater volatility to our pension expense than the calculated value method. The amounts recognized in the balance sheet reflect a snapshot of the state of our long-term pension liabilities at the plan measurement date and the effect of mark-to-market accounting on plan assets. At December 31, 2019, we recorded an increase to equity through other comprehensive income ("OCI") of $1.0 million (net of tax at the applicable jurisdictional rate) to reflect unrealized actuarial gains during 2019. At December 31, 2018, we recorded a decrease to equity through OCI of $18.0 million (net of tax at the applicable jurisdictional rate) to reflect unrealized actuarial losses during 2018. Those changes are subject to amortization over future years and may be reflected in future income statements.
At December 31, 2019, a total of $176,877,000 was outstanding and there was an undrawn amount of $11,636,000 under the letters of credit subcommitment of the Credit Facility. These letter of credit commitments were for the Company's own obligations. Including the amounts committed under the letters of credit subcommitment, the available borrowing capacity under the Credit Facility totaled $265,264,000 at December 31, 2019.
When available, the Company uses the rate implicit in the lease to discount lease payments to present value; however, most of the Company's leases do not provide a readily determinable implicit rate. Therefore, the Company must estimate its incremental borrowing rate to discount the lease payments based on information available at lease commencement.
(1) Upon adoption of Topic 842, discount rates used for existing leases were established at the transition date.
The following tables set forth the 2019 and 2018 changes in accumulated other comprehensive loss for the Company's defined benefit retirement plans and post-retirement medical benefits plan on a combined basis:
Benefit cost for the U.S. Qualified Plan does not include service cost since the plan is frozen. For the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, the non-service components of net periodic pension costs of $3,559,000 of expense and $2,590,000 and $179,000 of income, respectively, are included in "Other (Loss) Income, net" on the Consolidated Statement of Operations.
Compensation expense recognized for all performance shares totaled $1,082,000, $3,307,000, and $3,796,000 for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Compensation cost for these awards is net of estimated or actual award forfeitures. Certain performance awards vest ratably over three years, without cumulative earnings per share targets. As of December 31, 2019, there was an estimated $2,212,000 of unearned compensation cost for nonvested performance shares. This unearned compensation cost is expected to be fully recognized by the end of 2021.
The Company's reportable segments' total assets reconciled to consolidated total assets of the Company at December 31, 2019 and 2018 are presented in the following table: