Underwriting Solutions LLC Blog

I’ve just finished reading the best book on the prevention and management of Type 2 diabetes. The recommendations in Beating Diabetes are based on evidence from a randomized controlled clinical study called the Diabetes Prevention Program.. This book needs to be in your underwriting library and would make an excellent text for training purposes. But for those of you who may not have the time to find and read the entire book, I’ll summarize the key points:

• Eat less
• Move more

The book focuses on weight loss strategies and lifestyle modification. Get it, read it, live it.

The NY Time health blog recently reported on a list of prescription drugs that increase the risk of falls.  Here is the Permalink:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/a-list-of-drugs-that-increase-falling-risk/

Enjoy.

Last week was a heckuva week.  After several emails pitching me to upgrade my spyware protection service I relented under the mounting pressure.  Besides, it was only $5.  So I downloaded my anti-virus upgrade, ran the install program and promptly crashed my computer.  Ironic, eh?  The following morning, hoping that a good night’s rest would cure my computer’s refusal to boot up, I switched on the power.

Nothing.

It was at that moment I realized it wasn’t going to be a good day.

My mind started racing backwards…what did I do?

• Downloaded and installed anti-virus software
• Installed a new 10/100 ethernet switch
• Installed a new uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
• Installed and configured a new video card
• Installation and configured dual monitors

After determining my internal power supply and hard drive were OK it had to be a software conflict.   Rather than spend too many hours trying to figure out what the conflict was I took my machine to the local shop for repairs.  Rather than work off a small notebook computer I decided to configure a hot spare to work from ( I just happened to have an old Windows machine in the house).  So ultimately my solution to my computer crash was to configure and hook up another computer.

Can your remote underwriters do this?  If your company uses remotes and you are the manager responsible for their production, what does your remote technology support plan look like?  Do you have a remote tech support plan? Does your IT area have a remote support plan?

I am still working off my hot spare five days after my initial crash.  When I picked up my main box, disconnected the spare, reconnected my main, and powered up it still didn’t boot up.  I took it back to the shop and I await its return.

But I can work.

I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, pondering what to write. It’s simple really.

This is just so wrong…

So would you rate an 8 year old on statins?

AAP ISSUES NEW GUIDELINES ON CHOLESTEROL SCREENING

Below is a policy on a clinical report appearing in the July issue of Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

For Release: July 7, 2008, 12:01 am (ET)

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new cholesterol screening and treatment recommendations for children. The policy statement, “Lipid Screening and Cardiovascular Health in Childhood,” recommends cholesterol screening of children and adolescents with a family history of high cholesterol or heart disease. It also recommends screening patients whose family history is unknown or those who have other factors for heart disease including obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes. Screening should take place after age two, but no later than age 10. The best method for testing is a fasting lipid profile. If a child has values within the normal range, testing should be repeated in three to five years. For children who are more than eight years old and who have high LDL concentrations, cholesterol-reducing medications should be considered. Younger patients with elevated cholesterol readings should focus on weight reduction and increased activity while receiving nutritional counseling. The statement also recommends the use of reduced-fat dairy products, such as two percent milk, for children as young as one year of age for whom overweight or obesity is a concern.

# # #

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

© COPYRIGHT AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I’ve added a new links category on Obesity. Recently I joined the National Weight Loss Registry and became participant L8784. It took some time to fill out the questionnaires but since it was for a good cause, I answered each and every question. The only thing I didn’t do was the narrative. I was given the option to write about my weight loss experience. So after much thought and digging deep I wrote the following which debuts here first.

How To Lose 200 Pounds in Two Easy Steps

1. Eat less.
2. Move more.

Hopefully the accumulated data from people who have lost significant amounts of weight will lead to insights about losing weight and keeping it off. Over 65% of the US population age 20 and higher are overweight or obese.

And we wonder why 8% of the population has diabetes…

I’ve always felt that good writing comes from good thinking and that learning how to write well is difficult.   With the advent of the Internet you can find wonderful teaching websites for the craft of writing.   My inner underwriter has always believed that if underwriters were taught how to write about disease we could ultimately better understand some of the cryptic medical language found in the APS’s we read every day.  Well you’ll never guess what I found while doing some purposeful surfing (not mindless).

I’ve added a link to the training modules from the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program at Emory University, Atlanta SEER Cancer Registry, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

This training website provides web-based training modules for cancer registration and surveillance. When the site is complete, it will comprise about 30 training modules, each covering a particular cancer registration training subject. The site started in September, 2000 and is under continual development.

And to think all I wanted was to find out a little more about recurrent high grade focal dysplasia just to make sure the pathologist was on spot about the colonic mass despite everyone else calling the thing cancer.  I’m gonna have some fun playing around in this website.

“Oooh, that’s scary.”

Owner of Siam Smile, a Thai restaurant in downtown Edmond, OK as I was liberally sprinkling red hot chilies over my Pad Thai.

While enjoying a plate of Pad Thai at a local restaurant it dawned on me that the debate about remote underwriting has become nothing more than an academic tussle.  On one side of the debate, there are insurance companies that totally embrace remote underwriting.  On the other side there are companies with endless reasons who do not care for the concept of remote underwriting.  But in the end, the debate is purely academic at this time.  I got a phone call the other week that convinced me of this.

A very large multi-national company placed a recruiting call to me and I had a very nice conversation with the head of their HR.  This particular company has over 100 underwriters and over 40 are remote.  This got me thinking about other companies who have embraced remote underwriters.  These firms are all big names with big budgets, good technology, and a vision for the future.

The future is here and we all better get used to it.  Scary or not.

When someone mentions “earthquake” I tend to think immediately of San Francisco or Japan, perhaps the horrific quake that just jolted China. But Oklahoma?

On June 6, a minimum of four small earthquakes were recorded and confirmed in the Oklahoma City area by the Oklahoma Geological Survey. The largest quake occurred around 1:15 a.m. and measured 2.5 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was near the Interstate 44-Interstate 40 junction. This location is about 20 miles from my house.

This information is for all of you out there who believe there is nothing in the state of Oklahoma except for tornadoes. We have earthquakes too. Just another reason why we love this place.

Addendum - I forgot to mention on the day of the earthquakes we had sustained flat winds between 35 and 45 MPH with gusts exceeding 50 MPH.  Note how the winds split this tree nearly in half.  This happened two blocks from the world headquarters of UW Solutions LLC.

A year ago I was in Phoenix to participate in one of the sessions at the spring SOA meeting. I was given five minutes to make a point. While five minutes is not a lot of time, it was more than enough time to make a point, especially if no one else is debating you. To celebrate my five minutes of fame I have reprinted my brief, yet scintillating talk. The point I was trying to make was underwriting needed to become an insurance company’s strategic intellectual asset. Of course, re-reading what I wrote/spoke a year ago, I never mentioned my point in exactly that fashion. Not that it mattered. After all, I was talking to a bunch of actuaries.

Society of Actuaries Life 2007 Spring Meeting

May 10^th Session 43

Speed Underwriting: At Least 10 New Ideas in 90 Minutes

Strategic Outsourcing

Strategic outsourcing represents a significant shift in the way businesses operate to stay competitive in the global economy. Outsourcing strategies have evolved from short-term tactical cost savings to higher-level strategic initiatives that drive revenues and profits. Cost reduction is tactical, not strategic. As insurance companies focus on core competencies and migrate away from fixed cost to flexible variable cost models, outsourcing becomes more and more attractive. Outsourcing must be pursued on a partnership basis. The buyer should get excellent service at a reasonable cost and the provider should make a profit or service quality will suffer.[1]

Strategic outsourcing begins with careful planning. Explore your strategic options for the current reality: a supply and demand imbalance in underwriting talent that will persist for many years to come. Downsizing and demographics have combined to create the current reality. What are your company’s strategic plans to attract, acquire, and retain talent? What does your company’s long-term underwriting training program look like? Does your company have a strategy to capture its underwriting knowledge before that knowledge walks out the door?

This reality is not a short-term threat. Unfortunately, our minds do not perceive longer-term threats because the human mind is not equipped to comprehend the modern world we have created.[2] Decades of downsizing and the aging of the Boomers are simply two drivers of strategic outsourcing.

Skills and knowledge can be taught. Talent must be acquired.[3] And talent needs to be matched with the work to be done. The scarcity of talent demands different approaches.

Combined intelligently, your company’s core competencies plus extensive outsourcing strategies can improve returns on capital, mitigate risk, provide greater flexibility, and make you more responsive to the needs of your customers.

Disclaimer: Strategic Outsourcing Program LLC Edmond, Oklahoma is not me. I was doing a Google search with the term “strategic outsourcing” and I found this company based in the same town I live in.

My thoughts have crystalized on the amount of medical information you need to know to compently underwrite life mortality risk. Consider what follows to be totally unscientific and strong personal opinion based on experience. I developed this opinion from reading way too many APS’s in my lifetime and some recent observations from #1, the pre-Med student. After shadowing some doctors and observing a few colonoscopies, an EGD and knee arthroscopy up close and personal, #1 made this comment:

“Wow, specialists need to know a lot more than a family medicine doctor.”

Classic Duh, what do you think? But his comment got me thinking about what we do for fun and money. I have always thought I would make a good GP/Family Medicine type of doctor. Aside from the real world reasons why I didn’t pick that path, I understood intuitively why I have felt that way. I am the ultimate generalist. I like to do something intensely for a few years and then do something else. This drives my wife crazy. It’s not a real good strategy either for building up a nice pension. I also don’t recommend this strategy for career development. But hey, it’s what I am.

I’m drifting here. My thoughts have crystallized. We are underwriters. We don’t need nor will ever use the knowledge a specialist in medicine requires. All we need to be are halfway decent family medicine practitioners with an emphasis on preventative care. We need to understand what diseases and what behaviors will kill you. So how do you become a quasi-family practice person without the medical school training? I have to think about this some more. As always, comments and input are appreciated.