Ensuring application, underwriting and purchasing processes are as efficient as possible is vital for advisers to support their product recommendations to clients.
But a cocktail of issues such as increased wait times to see a GP, shortages of doctors, and inconsistencies in turnaround times from practices has meant advisers and insurers are waiting longer and longer to receive medical reports back from GP surgeries.
While the industry is exploring solutions to the problem, for now, advisers are having to be upfront with clients about delays risking the erosion of client confidence in getting covered.
And it is also affecting the most crucial part of the industry – paying claims.
Bottle neck of reports
“It’s hard because no-one wants to criticise the NHS in any way, shape or form after what they’ve done but there is a bottle neck of reports and it’s not getting any better,” Cavendish Ware associate director Roy McLoughlin, told Health & Protection.
“There’s this whole debate about electronic reports and whether that will make things easier but it’s almost as if we’re now saying to clients, ‘just so you’re aware, this could be three or even six months.’”
But according to Neil McCarthy, chairman of the Protection Distributors Group (PDG), while some surgeries turnaround requests in a reasonable time, others can be incredibly slow.
“Some doctors take weeks, even months to return reports, leaving their patients wanting to take out cover under-insured. And for patients whose claim can’t be assessed without this information, that leaves them without the financial support they need,” McCarthy told Health & Protection.
“Quite often this is down to how an individual practice is run, but this can be overcome now as there are providers that surgeries can work with which will enable them to outsource the production of reports.
“This ultimately results in reports being produced and returned, on average, twice as fast.”
McCarthy highlighted that delays in getting the appropriate reports cause delays in the assessing, admission and ultimately the correct payment of a claim.
“The impact of these delays can be financial hardship to vulnerable people, which is becoming even more of a risk given the current cost of living crisis,” he continued.
“We know not enough people have sufficient savings to fall back on in times of need, which is why being able to assess and pay claims as fast as possible is a priority.”
Steve Casey, marketing director at Square Health, told Health & Protection the problem is also being intensified by a shortage of GPs.
“There will be a shortage of GPs for a number of years, so GPs are doing what GPs do – helping people,” Casey said.
“So getting those medical reports and what have you is very much secondary for them and that will continue. The pull of healthcare professionals will be to continue to fight Covid,” he added.
Surgeries not signed up to platforms
But there are ways of mitigating the impact of these delays, Casey said, such as putting customers on the correct clinical pathway immediately.
And PDG’s McCarthy revealed there are also a number of initiatives which are improving the accuracy and speed of turnaround of electronic reports.
“Insurers are increasingly requesting electronic health records (EHR) where a surgery can support the technology,” he said.
“Questions being tackled in the future will revolve around the way clients access medical support – not necessarily through their local GP surgery, and who ‘owns’ the client medical data.”
But Vanessa Sallows, claims and governance director at Legal & General Group Protection, pointed out that even these solutions have their issues.
“Not all GP surgeries are currently signed up to the current platforms available and this is a barrier to transacting digitally,” she explained.
“This would certainly improve the customer journey and expedite claims assessment.”
Improvement in turnaround times
But the good news at least is there are signs of improvements in turnaround of reports, Sallows added.
“GP report turnaround times have improved since 2020 but, given the ever-increasing pressures on surgeries, times are inevitably longer than we would like and this is a problem the whole industry faces,” she continued.
“We try to overcome this by using our vocational rehabilitation team to carry out assessments with individuals to understand what they can do.”
Robert Morrison, chief underwriting officer at Aviva Health & Protection, revealed that for the small proportion of protection applications where medical information is required for underwriters, it has not seen any increase in return times from GPs over the last year.
Similarly for protection claims, Aviva has not seen an increase in response times overall from GPs, Morrison added.
Damage to industry’s reputation
But looking ahead, in the event that there is no effective solution to the problem, advisers have little choice other than to be open and upfront with customers about delays.
Alan Lakey, director at Highclere Financial Services was worried there was a real risk client perception of the industry would be further weakened when they experience delays to applications and claims.
“I try to get clients to apply at the start of the mortgage process so that we are ready when the exchange date comes – explaining to the client that delays are likely and that they should contact their surgery to get them to react more quickly,” he said.
Cavendish Ware’s McLoughlin agreed, adding: “If we go back to lack of faith in the industry because this is generally a product that is sold not bought, there is a danger that parts of the adviser community may look elsewhere for their remuneration model.”