USAA advancing automated decisioning of electronic medical records for life insurance

USAA Life has announced it has become the first in the industry to achieve an automated decision of electronic medical records (EMR) for life insurance underwriting. USAA Life first introduced the use of EMRs for life insurance applications in 2017. That technology allows the applicant to grant access to medical records digitally and securely, in near-real time.

In collaboration with RGA, USAA Life developed a means to analyze an applicant’s EMR, utilizing the RGA Digital Health Data Risk Score of diagnosis codes, which USAA Life’s system uses to make an automated underwriting assessment of the entire medical record.

“It’s our job to do everything we can to help our members and their families get the coverage they need to protect themselves. This new process pioneered by USAA Life makes it simpler and potentially faster to get that important coverage.” – Brandon Carter, president of USAA Life Insurance Company.

In addition to potentially reducing acquisition time for the applicant, this auto-decisioning process can reduce costs for the company, provide more consistent underwriting decisions, and represents the next step in the evolution of near-real time underwriting.

USAA Life’s new process leverages EMR patient portals from several health care providers and the company is exploring adding additional providers to increase EMR volume and EMR auto-decisioning.