I just want to reiterate that I don’t work for Special Risk Services. I am simply grateful for all they’ve done and all they’ve taught me over the last 14 years and I want to make sure agents know how to do the best job and where to find the best general agent to work for you. In my last post I talked about having to do a synopsis of medical information like stress tests. There are two reasons to get good at this. 1. It will get your information in front of more underwriters who, because of privacy laws, are getting more and more skittish about even looking at someone’s lab results and 2. The better you get the more you’ll understand the impairment and with knowledge comes success.
I wrote a trial the other day that is a good example. If you just throw it out there and ask underwriters to quote severe sleep apnea well controlled with cpap, you will get a bunch of vague quotes that will be contingent on sleep study results on the cpap, so….
PI born 8/1/70, 6’, 225, non smoker. Diagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea 2009, controlled and compliant with cpap. 3/12 sleep study impression =
1. Severe positional obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Off supine AHI is normal. Respiratory events were associated with oxygen desaturations (nadir of 87% on room air)
2. CPAP settings of 8, 9, 10 and 11 cm H2O normalized patient’s AHI in supine sleep. Nevertheless, lou snoring in supine persisited into the final pressure of 11 cm. At a CPAP setting of 8cmH2O, the arousal index normalized and the oxygen saturation was maintained at and above 94%.
3. Abnormal sleep architecture likely due to respiratory events, PAP titration
Recommendations =
1. AutoCPAP ranges 5 cm to 20 cm H2O with humidification or positional therapy. A medium Resmed Quattro FX FF mask may be suitable.
2. Alternatively CPAP 8 cmH2O with humidification might be preferred for cost reasons. If symptoms persist on this pressure, a dedicated titration study is needed to target snoring, particularly when patient would be in supine position.
The product of this information will be quotes that exactly match the outcome of the application. It took a few extra days for the client to get it together, but it will end up with solid quotes at least one rate class better than anyone who didn’t provide this to the underwriter. I buy in to what Rich Fuller says about a well done impaired risk case, “it’s twice as much work for a lot better placement ratio at four times the premium”, or as I put it, it’s harder work but beats competing for all the healthy $300 premium cases.
Most agents shy away from these kind of cases. With SRS you can bank them. If you have any questions about what’s relevant to underwriters on a given impairment, call or email Rich or Tim directly at 800-933-5491 or rfuller@srsinc.com and tjfuller@srsinc.com.
-By Ed Hinerman, manager of Risk Life Insurance and Hinerman Group.