Many life insurers have invested in underwriting automation to improve their services and grow their business, but manual underwriting is still essential, especially when reviewing referred cases; yet, the administrative burden that comes with it makes it challenging, says Swiss Re’s Nanditha Nandy.
Nandy, who is Head Data Driven UW Solutions Americas at Swiss Re, believes that manual underwriting deserves an update.
While distributors and customers are increasingly demanding a faster and friendlier customer experience, underwriting teams are also looking for ways to accelerate and improve the manual risk assessment process without mortality slippage, she stated.
“Automated underwriting engines have helped the life insurance industry take a big step forward by streamlining straight-forward applications, but a percentage of cases are still too complex and get flagged for additional, manual underwriting review,” Nandy explained.
“Today, when a life insurance application is kicked out of an automated process, underwriters manually collect and sift through numerous sources of medical and non-medical data to construct a narrative that helps them understand the applicant’s risk profile.”
Adding: “With the proliferation of third-party data sources, including clinical health data, the manual underwriting process has become disconnected, challenging, and time consuming. The knowledge and experience underwriters draw upon when manually reviewing cases is essential, but the administrative burden is not.”
To make it easy for underwriters to review referred cases, Swiss Re created the Underwriting Ease platform.
“It collects all requirements and presents the data in a way that makes it easier to identify and drill into impairments, interpret clinical health data, and determine an appropriate underwriting decision, faster,” Nandy explained.
“All of the information that an underwriter needs to make a decision can be easily accessed from one page. It’s a one-stop-shop for labs, prescription history, and more, from companies like ExamOne, Milliman, LexisNexis, and MIB.”
Additionally, the platform leverages Swiss Re’s partnership with Diameter Health, allowing it to seamlessly ingest and present electronic health records from any EHR providers, including MIB, Clareto, and HumanAPI.
“Many life insurers have already invested in underwriting automation to transform the customer experience, increase conversions and ultimately, grow their business,” Nandy stated.
“This year, I believe it’s time to focus on empowering underwriters to accelerate and improve the manual risk assessment process.”
