Over the several past years, telemedicine has made a notable impact in different healthcare branches. There is, however, one area where its effects are (just) starting to be felt: life insurance health assessments. This technological innovation is changing the face of how insurance companies understand applicants’ health, which means that information on one’s health status may soon be easier to obtain than it has ever been in history and become a smoother, faster process at better rates pending improved accuracy. We will now discuss how telemedicine is changing this important feature of the life insurance sector.
The Traditional Health Assessment Process
Historically, life insurance health evaluations included a laborious and at times inconvenient process:
Making An Appointment With A Healthcare Provider in Person
Travel To A Health Facility
Getting a Physical
To give the blood and urine samples
Days or weeks of waiting time + insurance approval.
This may present obstacles for the applicants and expenses to insurance companies. It also posed challenges for those living in rural or isolated regions, as well as individuals with issues around mobility.
Enter Telemedicine
Telemedicine, on the other hand, refers to utilizing digital technology for enabling distance care. It offers several key advantages in terms of assessing the health of a life insurance applicant:
1. Convenience and Accessibility
This often allows applicants to complete their virtual health assessments right from home through telemedicine. That way you don’t have to go out and lose time at work. This is incredibly good for the:
Rural or underserved populations
People who are pressed for time
People with Mobility Impairments or Chronic Illnesses
2. Faster Processing Times
Telemedicine can drastically streamline health assessments. Of course, setting up and completing a virtual consultation is much faster than the in-person one, not to mention that digital data transmission makes for quick processing of results. It could mean faster policy approvals and coverage starts.
3. Expanded Data Collection
Telemedicine tools often interconnect with fitness wearables and health apps, facilitating the continuous gathering of novel types of—real-time individualized healthy data over time. This gives insurers a better picture of an applicant’s health from more than one moment in time.
4. Cost Reduction
insurance companies benefit from it directly by having to pay less for physical infrastructure and streamlining. Those savings could then, theoretically be passed along to consumers in the form of cheaper premiums or more competitive policies.
How Telemedicine Health Assessments Work
The steps generally involved in the telemedicine life insurance health assessment are:
Online Consults: Candidates book a telehealth appointment with the physician. The provider will do this during a follow-up call, and review any history of medical issues the applicant has.
In some cases, a device is provided to the applicant for remote monitoring of blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation. These monitors are capable of sending the data directly at that moment with health care service providers all along.
At-Home Testing: For blood or urine tests, insurers may have At-home test kits sent to applicants. People can take a sample themselves using one of these kits and mail it to the lab for analysis.
EHRs (Electronic Health Records): With the applicant’s consent, insurers can view electronic health records, necessary for a better-informed understanding of an individual’s overall medical history without ordering fresh tests.
AI-Augmented Review: Sophisticated algorithms review the data collected to spot potential indicators of risks so that underwriters can make better decisions.
Challenges and Considerations
While telemedicine has a lot to offer for life insurance health assessments, there are some hurdles:
Privacy and Security Concerns
Like all other digital health solutions, it is very critical to ensure patient privacy on valuable medical data. Insurance companies, as well as telemedicine providers, need to make strong investments in cybersecurity solutions and adhere to data protection laws of any intruding region.
Technology Access and Literacy
Some applicants may not know the technology or feel capable of using it. They may need to look for other avenues if individuals are unable or unwilling — yes, some patients might prefer in-person visits over telemedicine services due to personal reasons.
Accuracy of Remote Assessments
There may be questions about how accurate health data can be when collected remotely rather than in person. These issues have already begun to be dealt with by ongoing research and technological progress around this subject but it is a significant concern.
The Future of Telemedicine in Life Insurance
And as technology continues to grow, we are surely going to see more telemedicine life insurance health assessments:
Continuous health monitoring: With 24/7 data, wearables could enable real-time policy updates to an individual’s improving or worsening health status.
This will likely include the evolution of AI-powered risk assessment where machine learning algorithms become increasingly adept in forecasting health risks associated with our genetic, lifestyle, and environmental risks.
Virtual Reality (VR) Testing: In the future, would VR technology allow a more complete and immersive remote health evaluation?
Conclusion
Take telemedicine, for example — it is just one of the many ways that technology has begun altering life insurance health assessments. This has the possibility of benefiting both insurance companies and policyholders by allowing the process to be easier, faster, and more data-driven. As the tech advances and spreads across more of the industry, we can expect to see a revolution in the way life insurance policies are underwritten and managed.
Although it is not in place yet and still has a long way to prove the concept, one thing seems clear- telemedicine will be an increasingly important element for life insurers seeking more affordable, personalized health assessments.