BUGS II The Explosion of Teleunderwriting in North America

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BUGS IIThe Explosion of Teleunderwritingin
North America
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WHY HAS TELEUNDERWRITINGEXPLODED ON THE
SCENEINNORTH AMERICA?

• It is faster, cheaper and BETTER
• than any other way to
• expedite risk selection

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THE TELEUNDERWRITINGEDGE 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

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How Has TeleunderwritingREDUCEDApplication-to-Is
sueCycle 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

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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

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HOW HAS TELEUNDERWRITINGPLEASED 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

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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

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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 alcohol
• EVEN OWNING PETS AT OLDER AGES!

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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

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What essential Rx elementis missing from
underwriters knowledge baseAND 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

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YOU DOUBT THIS IS SO???

• OKTELL ME HOW
• YOU
• WOULD RESPOND, AS AN UNDERWRITER, TO THE
  ACKNOWLEDGED USE OF THESE REMEDIES

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Would you approve cover if the proposed insured
admitted to currently using

• Milk Thistle?
• Mistletoe?
• Shark cartilage?
• Coenzyme Q-10?

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FOR YOUR GUIDANCEIF YOU USE THIS SLIDE!

• LIVER DISEASE
• CANCER
• CANCER
• HEART FAILURE/HEART DISEASE,POSSIBLY AS
  PROPHYLAXIS
• These are the answers to the 4 remedies on the
  previous slide - Hank

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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?

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Symptoms we can triage without obligatory MD
records

• SYNCOPE
• PALPITATIONS
• CHEST PAIN
• DIZZINESS AND VERTIGO
• HEADACHE
• ABDOMINAL PAIN

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IMPAIRMENTS WE ARE NOW TRIAGING WITHOUT MD
RECORDS

• DIABETES
• HEPATITIS
• SKIN CANCER
• COLITIS
• ASTHMA
• MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

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How is this POSSIBLE???

• INNOVATIVE QUESTIONING
• SUPERB DRILLDOWNS
• UNDERWRITER RE-EDUCATION

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How do we know we are not SACRIFICINGmortalityfo
r the sake of speed?

• BECAUSE INDUSTRY-LEADING U.S. COMPANIES HAVE NOW
  REPORTED THAT THE TELEINTERVIEW PROVIDES, DOLLAR
  FOR DOLLAR
• (ERPOUND FOR POUND!)
• MORE PROTECTIVE VALUE
• THAN MD RECORDS!

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FACT OF LIFE

• If you implement teleunderwriting
• YOU MUST AUDIT THE RESULTS EARLY ON
• to make certain you are, indeed, getting what you
  expected

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ANOTHERFACT OF LIFE

• BEWARE OF
• SNAKE OIL
• IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD!

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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

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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 prophecy
• driving their efforts!