Shaping the future of medical records and protection insurance

This report examines how to shift the medical profession and insurers towards sharing electronic medical records (EHRs) to improve access to insurance for consumers.

It outlines what work needs to take place in order to build trust in EHRs to avoid the insurance profession having to make underwriting decisions and decide claims based on paper reports from GPs.

This report, produced in collaboration with SAMI Consulting, explains how digital medical records could speed up the underwriting and claims handling process. It outlines four areas that need to happen to allow medical professionals to share digital medical records:

1. Financial advisers should look to play an active role in advocating the use of digital medical records by GPs and insurers to speed up and improve the accuracy of medical information transfer in relation to a protection and other insurances.
2. A Code of Practice should be produced clarifying the use of data redaction systems to ensure public trust regarding data management. Use of big data must also be transparent to ensure public trust.
3. The implications of data sharing between GPs and NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups for the insurance profession and other external data users must be explored.
4. Research must be conducted into how to grant patients access to their own health data and the implications this could have on the insurance profession and other external data users. 

Richard Walsh, who led the research for SAMI Consulting, said:

“The results within this report show where the benefits of digitalisation can be found.

For consumers, greater digitalisation could lead to greater trust and claims certainty as underwriting could benefit from a richer pool of data.

For GPs, greater digitalisation in general could create significant cost savings and streamline processes for receiving medical records, which could have further implications for the effectiveness of medical treatment.

Furthermore, the report could also have implications for access to insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions.”

Melissa Collett, Professional Standards director at the CII, said:

“Insurers need medical information to assess the risks when offering insurance or when deciding a claim.

An end to printouts and copies of paper notes in response to requests made by insurers and other permitted third-parties, such as advisers, would speed up the process of arranging or paying a policy.

A shift to digital records will also save doctors hours of time and cost when producing medical reports.”

NB: In the final report, Recommendation 2 should read, One obvious solution would be the development of an Article 40 Code of Practice – we say more about this at the end of this section. The Code would be the responsibility of the bodies that draw it up, but the industry should seek to influence the content so that the insurance aspect is reflected fairly and positively.

You can read the full report HERE.