BUGS IIThe Explosion of Teleunderwriting
in North America
Hank George, FALU, CLU, FLMIItinerate Speaker
www.hankgeorge.com
WHY HAS TELEUNDERWRITING
EXPLODED ON THE SCENEIN
NORTH AMERICA?
It is faster, cheaper and BETTER
than any other way toexpedite risk selection
THE TELEUNDERWRITING
EDGE IS UNPRECENTED!• Reduces cycle time by 50-90%• Reduces dependence on MD records by 40-80%• Slashes business acquisition costs• Pleases customers like never before!• Widely accepted by agents and brokers• Accommodates demands of nontraditional
distribution modes (more on this later)• Enhances the role of the underwriter
How Has TeleunderwritingREDUCED
Application-to-IssueCycle Time?
• (Nearly) eliminated slow, cumbersome requirements of the past
• Using teleinterview, allowed underwriters to act on most medical histories without waiting for tediously slow MD records
• Taken full advantage of latest technologies
How has TELEUNDERWRITINGslashed the incidence of waiting for (and then overpaying for!)
MD Records?
• Teleinterview with quality drilldown questioning provides a virtual portrait of the buyer
• Enhanced use of Rx information solicited on teleinterview enables us to make inferences regarding the severity of impairments
HOW HAS TELEUNDERWRITING
PLEASED OUR CUSTOMERS?It has gone way beyond
“smoker/nonsmoker” and “preferred risk”(our two most applauded 20th century
innovations)to embrace the concept of
HEALTH HABIT UNDERWRITING
HEALTH HABIT UNDERWRITING??
?The use of voluntary health habit
decisions and practices made by customers – and elicited on
telephone interviews – to modify debiting for some impairments and
to enhance the prospects for attractive cost of insurance,
rewarding those who embrace healthful lifetimes and shun risk-
taking behaviours
SUCH AS???• Healthful prophylaxes (aspirin, etc.)• Good dietary choices• Judicious use of dietary supplements• Leisure time exercise (vs. sendentary)• Embracing MD advice• Temperate use of beverage alcoholEVEN OWNING PETS AT OLDER AGES!
How can Rx informationallow underwriters to
act without MD records?
• Most physicians follow consistent paradigms when prescribing medication
• The medication chosen reflects the severity of the impairment in context of what is disclosed by applicant during the teleinterview drilldown
• Enhanced underwriter knowledge of Rx is essential for this to be possible
What essential Rx element
is missing from underwriters’ knowledge
base…AND MUST BE PRESENT?
Adequate understanding of the range of alternative and complementary remedies and how they interface with medical histories and
prescribed Rx
to determine insurability
YOU DOUBT THIS IS SO???
OK…TELL ME HOW
YOU WOULD RESPOND, AS AN UNDERWRITER, TO THE
ACKNOWLEDGED USE OF THESE REMEDIES…
Would you approve cover if the proposed
insured admitted to currently using…
•Milk Thistle?•Mistletoe?•Shark cartilage?•Coenzyme Q-10?
Can we make trustworthyinferences from tests and
interventions?
• Esophagoscopy for reflux with no further recommendations vs. annual testing?
• Stress test for chest pains in female with imaging recommended vs. no further tests?
• Obese 50 year old remale with elevated ALT, hepatic ultrasound and advise to lose weight?
Symptoms we can triage without
“obligatory” MD records
• SYNCOPE• PALPITATIONS• CHEST PAIN• DIZZINESS AND VERTIGO• HEADACHE• ABDOMINAL PAIN
IMPAIRMENTS WE ARE NOW TRIAGING
WITHOUT MD RECORDS• DIABETES• HEPATITIS• “SKIN CANCER”• COLITIS• ASTHMA• MULTIPLE
SCLEROSIS
How is this POSSIBLE???
INNOVATIVE QUESTIONINGSUPERB DRILLDOWNS
UNDERWRITER RE-EDUCATION
How do we know we are not SACRIFICING
mortality…for the sake of speed?
BECAUSE INDUSTRY-LEADING U.S. COMPANIES HAVE NOW
REPORTED THAT THE TELEINTERVIEW PROVIDES,
DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR(ER…POUND FOR POUND!)
MORE PROTECTIVE VALUE
THAN MD RECORDS!
FACT OF LIFE
If you implement teleunderwriting
YOU MUST AUDIT THE RESULTS EARLY ON
to make certain you are, indeed, getting what you expected
ANOTHERFACT OF LIFE
BEWARE OF
SNAKE OILIN YOUR OWN BACKYARD!
SNAKE OIL???An old Cajun term
for the inciting alarm
and the slathering on
of MISINFORMATION
so as to distort what is true
and thus preserve antiquity (!)
at the expenses of progress
“I FEEL AS IFI HAVE JUST
BEEN LISTENING
TO A HUCKSTER”
WORD TO THE WISE
When you audit the effectiveness
of your TELEUNDERWRITING operation,
be certain those undertaking this audit do not harbor a
clandestine (and malignant)
self-fulfilling prophecydriving their “efforts!”