Long-Term Care and Linked-Benefit Insurance Underwriting

It makes good business sense to see if your client might be insurable before spending your valuable time reviewing detailed sales illustrations!

Here are two proven screening techniques you can use:

• Look for these physical conditions that could make them uninsurable:
  
  
  1. Use of wheel chair, crutches, walker, quad cane, or supplementary oxygen.
     
     
  2. Obesity. Grossly overweight clients are ones who would have trouble negotiating a couple flights of stairs.
     
     
  3. Unsteadiness. These are the clients who walk with a shuffle, and who constantly reach for support.
     
     
  4. Memory loss/mental alertness. Don't take an application if you doubt their ability to make rational decisions, or to remember them afterward!
     
     
• Then ask these four questions:
  
  
  1. “Have you changed any of your daily living habits because of health issues?”
     If a client replies that she's only walking fifteen miles a week instead of twenty, she's probably insurable. But clients who say they now need occasional assistance with bathing, dressing, or moving about are not insurable.
     
     
  2. “Within the past five years, have you been hospitalized or been advised to have major surgery?”
     If they have been treated for any of the following conditions within the last three to five years, they are probably uninsurable:
     
     
     
     • Two or more coronary surgeries (or one within the last year)
     • Cancer (most skin cancers OK)
     • Stroke or transischemic attack (TIA) within the last year
     • Severe emphysema (and they're still smoking)
     • Congestive heart failure within last two years
     • Falls (more than one within the last year)
     • Joint replacement (without full recovery certified by doctor)
     • Osteoporosis (severe or with fracture)
       
       
  3. Have you ever talked to your doctor about any feelings of depression?
     A history of depression is the most common reason for LTC insurance declines.
     
     
  4. “What prescription meds are you taking?”
     Most of your older clients are taking them. Here are some meds that flag uninsurable health problems:
     
     
     
     • Alzheimer's disease: Aricept, Cognex, Cyloserine, Exelon
     • Cancers: Adriamycin, Alkeran, Cytoxan, Depo-Provera, Estinyl, Leukeran
     • Mental/cognitive disorders: Ergoloid, Haldol, Hydergine, Risperdal, Zyprexa
     • Parkinson's disease: Artane, Cogentin, Eldepryl, L-Dopa, Larodopa, Parlodel, Parsidol, Permax, Sinemet, Symmetrel