Working on a current underwriting project one of my colleagues discovered (do forgive me if this old news to you) that you can get details of all the prescriptions you have ever had, plus all the tests you ever had, from our very own Government. Before you get too excited about the underwriting implications, you must bear in mind that it is very hard to get at this information. Needlessly hard, but nevertheless, very hard.
What happens at present with underwriting is that we play a kind of combination memory and guessing game with our clients:
A client age 50, say, must remember everything medical about themselves, some of their family and guess what their doctor may have diagnosed or written down but not told them.
If you think this is harsh two recent examples should help. Talking with advisers, clients, and underwriters could furnish you with dozens of examples in only one morning. One client believed he was prescribed a drug for ‘hyperventilating’ not knowing it was an anti-depressant. One doctor did not tell a client they had COPD, describing it as a ‘weak chest’. Unfortunately both cases would raise eyebrows with underwriters if discovered through the underwriting process. But worse awaits the client where they are not discovered… what happens if they are discovered only by the claims investigation?
So in this game there is no special reward for success, but the price of failure can range from mild embarrassment to the loss of a claim payment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is costly for insurers too – the underwriting process is expensive. It is expensive in direct costs: expensive people, medical reports, and so on. It is expensive in indirect costs: the time taken, the client applications abandoned, and cases declined.
So discovering new data sources where more reliable information can be obtained should be a real treat. However, the process required to access the database is dreadful: a written request (telephone or email not allowed) a call from the department to ask extensive identity verification questions, and finally the information is posted (not emailed, apparently leaving the information in an unsecured letterbox on the street is much safer).
Regrettably it also isn’t complete – it is only part of the story – but it is a tantalising part. Imagine if the data were available. Imagine if you could use your RealMe login to access a site and send the data to your insurer? It would save a lot of time, money, and waste. It is, after all, your data – so why not? Why aren’t insurers lobbying hand in hand with consumers for better access?