The fees that doctors are earning for writing patient reports are “scandalous”, according to Caroline Froude, head of technical underwriting at Guardian Financial Services.
Speaking at the Protection Review Conference 2024, Froude lamented how difficult it was to get reports from GPs and urged the industry to act.
She also questioned the loss of flexibility for underwriters and the demand to constantly make profits, and added that she expects the right to be forgotten to eventually be introduced in the UK.
Addressing the audience, Froude (pictured second right) said: “Don’t get me started on GPs – they are the main business prevention causers around here, it’s not the underwriters anymore.
“They are paying a doctor hundreds of pounds to write a note or a report. Its scandalous,” she added.
“I think we should do something about that.”
Lost its spark
Questioning the current path of underwriting and losing the freedom to get people covered Froude continued: “I’ve been around for quite a long time doing underwriting and I think the art of underwriting has been diminished.
“Where we used to have a gut feeling say that this feels like 120 or this feels like 150 or whatever it might be, that’s been removed from us.”
She noted that there was also a fear of making a decision that is “sometimes out of the box” and that underwriters have to follow guidelines.
“They are not God lines, they are guidelines, that’s what they should be – just guides,” she emphasised.
Froude noted that “underwriting has lost some of its spark,” largely due to the need to constantly make profits and to avoid losses.
“I think its a shame, to be honest,“ she said.
“Underwriters want to do the best, they want to include people, they want people to get cover, that’s what its all about.”
Future of underwriting
She noted that there is also talk that underwriters may not be needed soon, as the rules engines and AI will do a lot of their function.
But she added: “There will always be the need for humans to pick it up and actually make a decision.
“I wouldn’t say necessarily the workload has increased – I would say the complexity of the cases that are coming across an underwriter’s desk has certainly increased.
“Things take longer.”
Right to be forgotten
Froude added that she expected the right to be forgotten, which is being introduced in some European Union countries, would eventually be brought in to the UK.
“We have to think really long and hard about it,“ she said.
“We don’t want it forced upon us, so government needs to be clear about this and they need to work out what it is that they really want.“
She said in her view, prices will go up, “and that’s going to make the adviser’s job even more difficult.“
She concluded: “But I think it will come.“