Underwriting

At the recent Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) meeting, Executive Vice President, Betsy Sears, shared insight that our data analytics team has collected and analyzed comparing self-disclosure to positive confirmations of various laboratory tests. Our insurance clients tell us consistently that fraud is a top concern – whether intentional or unintentional applicant nondisclosure, it can cost companies millions.

As accelerated underwriting programs grow more prevalent in the industry, some carriers may feel they are falling behind. But this may be more perception than reality. The following article from RGA addresses common misconceptions around accelerated underwriting and dispels many of the myths about implementing an accelerated underwriting program

Things should certainly be looking up in terms of bronchogenic carcinoma (lung cancer).  The number one cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, less and less people are smoking than ever before.  According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2016 statistics, the percentage of smokers in the period since World War II has dropped from over 43 percent to under 16 percent of U.S. adults.  And newer treatments for lung cancer are being broadcast on television advertisements regularly.  It should certainly mean improved underwriting with this disease by all standards.

Conditions within a country can change rapidly at any given time. When assessing and classifying an applicant’s travel related risk, it is important for underwriters to review the relevant U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory information in its entirety.

Complicated pathology reports can contain significant amounts of genetic information. It has become vital for insurance company medical directors, underwriters, and claims professionals to understand "driver mutations" present in, or absent from, a tumor's genome, well as targeted therapies and their mechanisms. This article will examine how genetics contributes to cancer development, treatment, and prognosis.

Although the hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) has been administered routinely at birth in the United States since 1991, the infection remains a global health hazard. Hepatitis B is frequently asymptomatic, so many acutely and chronically infected patients may be unaware of their condition. This article updates readers on advances in the understanding, treatment, and prognoses for this condition, as well as the underwriting and claims implications for life and health insurers.

ANZ bank's insurance arm OnePath Life Insurance today revealed some early wins for its project with researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) which uses machine learning models and advanced analytics to improve the insurance underwriting process.

While high levels of public awareness have been generated, understanding the mortality threat from infection by this organism will assist underwriters in identifying lives that are more at risk.

Medical advances have led to an evolving definition of myocardial infarction. Once considered inevitably fatal, the condition is now survivable, and improvements in diagnosis have implications for pricing, underwriting, and claims models. This article traces the history of infarction, documents the current standardized position, and examines evolving technologies and medical opinion.

Despite its dwindling popularity in many countries, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of illness and premature death in the world.