Self-reported health: potential life underwriting tool?
Any approach that adds speed and efficiency to the underwriting process provides a competitive edge in today's fast changing financial services industry. The acquisition of data for medical underwriting has always been a challenge; with the traditional attending physician statement process adding time, real costs, and opportunity costs to manufacturing life products. Is there any potential for the use of self-reported medical and health history data in medical underwriting assessment? This article reviews published research on the uses and the validity of self-reported health data as it has been applied in current medical and public health practices. Whether self-reported medical history is valid data that can be applied in the underwriting context remains an open question.
Swiss Re, 1700 Magnavox Way, Fort Wayne, IN 46804, USA. kenneth_krause@swissre.com
Kenneth J
KJ
Krause
D002908:Chronic Disease; D006304:Health Status; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007352:Insurance, Life; D008487:Medical History Taking; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity