Five commitments we're making to claims and underwriting
Getting your clients on risk efficiently and paying claims in a timely and sensitive manner is at the core of what we do, writes Greg Levine, Chief Growth and Operations Officer for Vitality.
You’ve heard the phrase: the claim is the ‘moment of truth’.
As an industry, we recommend cover to our clients for those unforeseen curveballs that life throws at us – serious illness, sickness absence from work or early death - in the hope that it won’t actually happen.
The unfortunate reality is that many people will and do claim on their cover. The £117m paid out by Vitality alone last year represents thousands of individuals and families impacted by a claim event1.
Alongside this, if a claim is often the end of the journey, then the point at which they apply for cover and get underwritten is just as vital.
We know how crucial that initial application and underwriting process is. Our collective business success is determined by how quickly we get people covered, and advisers and clients rightly expect a seamless and stress-free experience.
So, with all of that in mind, here are five ways we’ve strengthened our claims and underwriting processes over the last year, helping to make it easier for advisers to do business with us and deliver the best service possible for your clients:
1. New claims management system
We know that when a claim arises, it’s the ultimate test, and at this point the quality of cover and advice is truly tested.
It’s also the moment the client and their loved ones need us the most.
Over the last year, we have been making significant improvements to our life claims’ experience and processes, and despite an increase in claims, we’ve been able to halve the average time a claim sits with our team for assessment. This is a big step forward in supporting our members and claimants to get a decision much earlier.
However, we're not stopping there.
In September we launched a new claims system for our internal teams to drive quicker turnaround times, manage chasers much more efficiently and ensure faster claim payments. It’s also reduced the need for printed forms, allowing clients to digitally complete claim forms through DocuSign.
This new system gives our team a single, end-to-end view of a member’s claim and means they can manage the whole claim in one place. We’ve also added a status timeline, so that members and advisers can easily view claim progress and understand what the next steps are.
2. Clear communication is key
Effective and timely communication is critical when managing a claim. Making a claim can also be a distressing and emotional time for the client and their loved ones.
It’s for that reason we’ve rewritten all of our emails and redesigned them to help aid the overall process and ensure the client knows the progress of their claim, every step of the way.
Through our new claims management system, our Member Care Team can also trigger these communications in real-time and automatically send reminders for critical information where necessary. All helping to speed up the overall processing time.
3. Continually improving claims management
Our members, your clients, are our absolute number one priority and we remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting them when they need us the most.
Alongside those system enhancements and the improvements made to communications, building on what we’ve done so far, in the coming months we’ll be working on further initiatives like concierge case management, instant payment of claims at the point of decision, and creating a Claims Hub for members.
4. Straight-through processing for underwriting
Consumers are now used to making purchases at the click of a button and with the minimum of friction.
Whilst we can’t remove underwriting from the protection application journey entirely, particularly given the importance of setting up the cover correctly and avoiding nondisclosure, we can make the process as seamless as possible.
Thanks to improvements to Vitality’s underwriting processes, in the last two years we’ve been able to increase straight-through processing (STP) to almost 8 out of 10 protection cases, meaning more clients are able to get a decision straight away following an application.
Over the coming months, we’ll be rolling out further efficiencies and automation, in order to continue to improve on these STP rates, helping advisers and their clients to experience a simpler underwriting process.
5. Efficiencies in gathering medical evidence
In some instances, applications will require further medical evidence in order to properly assess the client’s medical history and offer an appropriate underwriting decision.
Our Spectra digital underwriting tool gives advisers 24/7 access to a likely underwriting decision for as many as 6,000 different medical and lifestyle disclosures.
This not only makes it easier to give clients an indication of the terms they may receive, but also prepares them for whatever additional evidence may be required, helping to speed up the process.
Meanwhile, the launch of our recent partnership with iGPR means we can now receive GP reports digitally. Most recently this has involved shorter, more condensed reporting, reducing the average length by half - which ultimately will improve the time it takes to put clients on cover.
Thanks to these enhancements, we’ve been able to reduce end-to-end processing time by 25%, despite seeing a 30% increase in applications.
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