Life

Some of the articles featured in the September 2019 edition of RGA's Global Medical Newsletter include:

• Part II: Proposed New Classification and Nomenclature for Chronic Pain
• The Changing Face of Alzheimer’s Disease
• Brief Report: The Elusive Influenza Vaccine – Are We Any Closer?

As a young psychiatrist, I went through a period of being excited about the brain. It seemed that emerging technologies in imaging and genetics would transform clinical psychiatry.
 

In recent years, a substance known as kratom has grown in popularity in the U.S. and the U.K. as it is easy to purchase online and advertised as a ‘legal high.’ RGA's Hilary Henly explores the consumption, regulation, and risk of this increasingly popular plant-based psychoactive substance.

Because underwriters play an essential role in this “noblest profession,” it is critical our service be consistently outstanding. A key to ensuring such consistency is for Underwriting departments to measure and manage performance and productivity without inappropriate bias.

Lab results often fit a pattern, since the body’s physiologic system is generally in sync with each of its organ systems. If heart, liver, kidneys or metabolic results are affected, there will generally be a pattern where tests rise in conjunction with each other. Then there are “outliers,” profiles where one test stands front and center out of the normal and without any lab value friends to put it in perspective.

Top life underwriting issues include regulatory concerns, accelerated underwriting, and the opioid epidemic.

There is no single tool capable of defeating insurance fraud. In a wide-ranging paper and guide, RGA shares insights into fraud detection and prevention trends, techniques, and technologies at the RGA Fraud Conference. Insurers must be proactive and prepared to adapt nimbly, to keep pace with fraudsters. Find simple steps all insurers can take here.  

Is the recent slowdown of mortality improvement observed amongst the U.S. population also happening in the individual life insurance population, and what are the implications for the future?

Life underwriting professionals are experiencing a paradigm shift in modus operandi, driven by the introduction of automation initiatives. Multiple consulting studies and analyses indicate that automation in underwriting is a valid business need. The coevolution of humans and technology must be supported by business strategies that focus on identifying necessary underwriting skill sets. The convergence of the art of underwriting and the science of technology presents many challenges. Insurers and reinsurers must plan accordingly.