BUGS II The Explosion of Teleunderwriting in North America

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!”