Enhanced underwriting - further information and medical appointments

Enhanced underwriting – further information and medical appointments

Each application for protection insurance is unique in its own way, which is why protection insurance applications are more often than not assessed on a case by case basis. Usually, once you have submitted an application, it will be looked at by an underwriter who will make a decision on what terms you could potentially be offered.

There are many instances where a decision can be made straight away based on the answers you have provided on your application, but it is also incredibly common for the insurer to want to ask a few extra things too. 

Further information

Some people might feel uneasy about an insurer coming back with further questions, but it shouldn’t be something you worry about! Many of our clients have disclosures on their protection insurance application, so an insurer requesting further information is nothing new to us. As mentioned, it is super common for an insurer to request further information regarding your application. This could be requested in a number of ways, depending on the disclosures that you’ve made.

For example, it could be that you have mentioned a hobby of yours or a hazardous occupation and the insurer wants to ask you some more specific questions to gauge how much of a role this plays in your life. Or, you might have disclosed a health condition and the insurer would like your doctor or other health care professional to confirm the details that you’ve provided.

When it comes to requesting medical information from the likes of a doctor, this is normally all handled by the insurer. They will pay any costs involved and will try to ensure that they receive the information back in a timely manner. This means that you can sit back and relax whilst the work is being done in the background. 

Unfortunately, the NHS is under huge pressure at the moment, especially after the pandemic, which means we have seen medical reports take weeks, even months to be completed. We know that this isn’t ideal especially when you’re waiting to hear about potential terms, which is why at Cura we chase the progress of each application on a regular basis and keep our clients up to date, so that they know exactly what is happening.

We speak with the insurer and your GP on your behalf to find out what is happening, help to sort out any issues that the two might be having, and provide support to make things move as quickly as possible.

Medical appointments

In some circumstances, for example if you spend a lot of time in certain countries or have a particular health condition, the insurer might ask for you to have an appointment with a nurse to check a few things over. Again, these shouldn’t be anything to worry about. In fact, our managing director, Kathryn Knowles attended one of these types of appointments, so we have a pretty good idea of how they might go.

From Kathryn’s experience, this was pretty smooth sailing and informative too. Kathryn arranged an appointment at a time and place that suited her and within two days, a nurse arrived. The nurse explained what was going to happen during the appointment to really put Kathryn at ease.

Basic things such as height and weight were checked, as well as lung capacity. The nurse then went on to take a blood pressure reading, took blood for a blood test and carried out a urine sample test.

The tests might change slightly depending on why the appointment was required, but this is a pretty good basis to go by. The appointment took less than an hour, and Kathryn received results within a week. In a normal situation this would mean that the insurer would also have the results, and can continue to assess your protection insurance application.

Whether it’s further information or a medical appointment that the insurer has requested, there is usually a good reason for doing so, and the insurer can let you know the reason for this too. 

While it might seem like a lot to go through, a bit of a faff, having an application assessed by an underwriter and them having all possible information really can be more beneficial in the long run than finding a quicker option initially. We like to think of enhanced underwriting as a good thing, as if a claim were to ever be made, there should be little chance of the policy not paying out because of a missed disclosure.

If you have any questions about the application process, underwriting or any general protection insurance questions, we have a team of advisers all happy to help. 

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