Tag: eNoah

The Acceleration Of E-Engagement For Life And Health Like Medicare Supplemental Insurance

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By Ken Leibow

Originally Published in Broker World Magazine April 1, 2021

 

COVID-19 has forced independent distribution into e-Engagement for life insurance and health related insurance products. Some technology vendors in the life insurance space have enhanced, configured, and marketed their solution platforms to support health products like Medicare supplemental insurance, long term care insurance, critical illness, and disability income insurance.

 

Medicare is now the fastest-growing segment of the health insurance market, with 10,000 baby boomers aging into the program every day. Medicare enrollment is expected to soar between 2021 and 2029, reaching 77 million enrollees by the end of the decade. That’s an increase of 1.5 million new enrollees each year. With that said, many have to make the decision of what plan they choose: Traditional Medicare and a supplemental insurance policy, often referred to as Medigap, which sees about 60 percent of the market share, or a Medicare Advantage Plan at about 40 percent. Regardless, open enrollment season is a busy one!

 

Digitizing Paper MedSup Insurance Applications
PaperClip Mojo is a collection of the best of technologies paired with human validation to achieve 99.9 percent accuracy at unimaginable speed. A perfect solution for the onboarding of Medicare supplement (MedSup) new business, Mojo4Medicare, the tailored version, makes the open enrollment period the same as any other day. Mojo4Medicare is designed to process unlimited Medicare application packets for a consistent turnaround time. By collapsing the cycle time, you avoid backlogs and deliver faster commission payout. Mojo4Medicare is an e-app alternative.

“There is no longer a need to increase resources, both infrastructure and labor, only to decrease those after the enrollment period,” states Suzy Tuck, vice president of sales. “With Mojo4Medicare you will enjoy the ability to maintain the processing of new business as received, increase your focus on case management without additional resources and have no adoption challenge. Staff will love it and realize that the enrollment period is like any other day!”

 

No-Code eApp for MedSup Insurance
Management Research Services (MRS) is an industry leader in developing customized digital and automation solutions for clients and partners. Recently, MRS led efforts to develop and help a New York brokerage firm struggling to collect In Good Order (IGO) applications from Medicare supplemental insurance (MedSup) clients in a timely manner. The main driver of these issues was that the current processes relied on legacy workflows and technologies that were unable to electronically ingest and automate the large number of handwritten applications they received. This resulted in the reliance of manual entry which consumed a large amount of time, energy, and resources. As issues and delays began to pile up, it became obvious that a new process would have to be developed to fit the needs of their operating systems and clients. MRS was identified as a potential solution to this problem and, upon understanding the challenges, MRS leveraged its no-code platform to quickly create a customized e-App to better automate the workflow. The MRS e-App was able to dramatically improve the workflows in the following areas:

 

  • Collection of the applications 100 percent In Good Order (IGO).
  • Substantial increases in policy processing and acceptance.
  • A better way to follow-up on missing applicant data by sending a personal URL directly to the applicant so they could easily provide the missing data needed.

 

The immediate results seen were improvement of time to issuance, an increase in the number of applications completed IGO, and the streamlining of back office operational efficiencies that saved time, energy, and resources. Additional opportunities around customized reporting dashboards and better real-time data analysis were identified as ways to better serve agents in the field.

 

One of MRS’s core business principles is that once it onboards a new client into production, the work has just begun. MRS is constantly developing new features and capabilities and since customers are always on the most updated version of the platform, these innovations are immediately available to clients. For instance, MRS has identified new integration partners that will enable compliant video communication capabilities that better enable the remote sales processes critical in times like the COVID-19 crisis. MRS will continue to innovate and lead the charge in the future of no-code platforms that advance insurance automation and support stronger sales and operational efficiencies.

 

Life AMS Supports Health Products
Agency management systems (AMS) for life insurance have been retrofitted to support health products. I spoke with Equisoft, who has the number one agency management system in Canada, “Centralize,” which is now available in the USA. In Canada health products like critical illness and disability income insurance have been processed by MGAs on Centralize. In order to get a perspective of the problems solved for life distributors processing new business and commissions for multi-lines of business, Equisoft answered a series of questions about their AMS.

 

What key challenges do distributors face today? Distributors and National Accounts are data driven businesses, but they operate in an environment that has not fully digitally transformed. They take in massive amounts of data that must be processed, analyzed and acted upon, but in many cases the workflows still involve a great many manual steps. Paper apps are still being mailed to their offices. They have to be manually entered, then sent on for processing and approval. Tasks arising from the new business intake process (like follow-ups on paramedical issues) are not automated. In many cases commission payments, claims resolution and customer service are still not as fast, seamless and user-friendly as they could be. Related to those data issues, all distributors and national accounts are seeking to attract and retain more advisors. With the advent of new distribution models, such as robo-advisors, the distributors role in policy fulfillment is lessening, decreasing the advisors’ need for that part of the traditional distributor value proposition. Instead, distributors must find new ways to add value to advisor businesses as part of an emerging new value proposition that serves the digitally transformed insurance landscape. In the new world, advisors place more value on partnerships with those organizations that can help them grow their business.

 

How are Application Processes Automated? Distributors and national accounts need to be able to process new business from advisors on a daily basis. Our advanced case management workflow speeds up the underwriting process for distributors. Equisoft/Centralize allows them to enter policy applications either manually or through a feed from the carriers. They can send those policies through to the carrier and get them approved and in- force—giving distributors the ability to push the process from beginning to end. In a nutshell, distributors who use Equisoft/Centralize find there is less manual intervention needed from the distributors to see the policy through to in-force status. Our automations and case management workflow are unparalleled, ensuring our distributors’ clients can confidently and accurately process cases all the while providing excellent service to their clients—the advisors.

 

How is the platform improving back-office efficiencies? The ease-of-use of Equisoft/Centralize is a huge benefit for distributors. Many distributors, even today, are still getting paper applications—advisors are actually mailing them in. Then the distributor has to manually enter them. Equisoft/Centralize greatly automates this process, which creates efficiencies for distributors and makes for a better advisor experience. How does Equisoft contribute to the digital transformation of the independent insurance channel? Equisoft/Centralize is a very modern, rules-based solution. It is also central to the emerging digital value proposition for distributors—enabling distributors to better partner with advisors in the success of their practice. It identifies opportunities for advisors, removes obstacles in the processing of new business, and makes sure they get paid faster. In total, it helps all industry stakeholders achieve the end goal—making their clients’ financial goals a reality.

 

How COVID-19 Forced the BGA World into e-Engagement
We are now one year past the start of COVID-19 lockdown. Our world was turned upside down as we all faced a global pandemic. Many struggled to find the right process flow and adapt to new ways of doing business. Even carriers were pushed into a “forced pilot” of e-Engagement to insure they could get underwriting information, signature requirements and policies to the customer. The changes were swift and mandatory to support the ultimate customer, the applicant/insured and their beneficiaries. With this, agencies looked to process experts whether internal in their organization or others to help with the transition. Per Stacey Paulson, director of insurance services at eNoah iSolutions, “The beauty of the BGA space is each agency has their unique culture as to what works best for them and their customer base. This serves the greater good in meeting the needs of different customers in protecting their families. The struggle was real when some were forced into an electronic application process and not having the internal resources—all while moving to a work from home environment. I’m glad we were there to help our customers through this difficult time.”

 

While it’s hard to think of much positive to come out of COVID-19, the forced adoption of e-Engagement opened mindsets of how to do business moving forward. It took away some of the fear and challenged us to think of different ways to engage with our peers and current and future customers.

 

eNoah: An Interview with Coleen Moser

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Hank George Interviews Coleen Moser 

Originally published in Hot Notes September, 2020

 

Several of my friends lost their livelihoods when EMSI suddenly shut down. We offered to assist them in their hunt for new opportunities. That is when we found about eNoah.

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We want Hot Notes readers to get a proverbial “bird’s eye view” at what eNoah does, and we asked my friend Coleen if she would do this interview and answer the questions we have.

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She said “yes,” and here is what she’s shared.

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What is eNoah?

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eNoah is a global provider of services for life insurers. These include contract underwriting, medical record retrieval and medical record summarization.

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The recent expansion of U.S. onshore operations enables eNoah to provide an accelerated end-to-end process speeding up decision-making by insurers.

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What do you consider to be the biggest challenge life insurance carriers and underwriters face today?

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The capacity to adapt to evolving market needs.

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Producers (agents, brokers) and insurance applicants have become accustomed to the “Amazon experience,” where they can select the product they want at the price they are comfortable with and have it in as little as one day. This expectation complicates the life insurance application-to-issue process. Attending physicians’ statements can take weeks to acquire and review.

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Because of this, there is increasing pressure to make faster decisions with less information while cutting costs and continuing to be competitive.

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Unfortunately, insurance has been one of the slowest sectors to adopt new technologies. This can be a herculean task, in part because the amount of data in the medical histories, that underwriters must review, keeps increasing.

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Accessing records through patient portals and e-health records has exposed gaps in data and inconsistent formatting. Many essential portions of the standard medical record may not be included, increasing the odds of underwriting errors.

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Complete medical records can exceed 1,000 pages. They typically include lab slips, medications, ECG tracings, clinic notes, follow up notes, surgical procedure summaries and countless other documents. It is a tedious process for an underwriter to review every page of the APS to find those key bits of information that can make or break a case.

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eNoah’s mission is to greatly reduce decision-making intervals by relieving underwriters of most of this burden. This is accomplished via customizable solutions ranging from a traditional medical record summary to utilizing eXtract Plus, which utilizes innovative technology for a system-driven overview of the APS. When insurers deploy this novel resource, there are always going to be those occasions when the underwriter needs a full summary of the APS. When requested, this can be done within 48 hours.

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How do eNoah’s eXtract Plus and APS Summarizations speed up the risk assessment process and take pressure off underwriters?

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Underwriting requires exquisite attention to detail honed by years of experience and a broad knowledge base. eNoah’s focus is creating powerful tools to help underwriters make accurate decisions more rapidly and less tediously.

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These tools were built for underwriters by underwriters that created resources and software leveraging the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. ML and AI can —with great accuracy — read through and filter a client’s entire medical history spanning several hundred pages in just minutes, and provide deep insights to the underwriter to quickly make informed decisions.

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eXtract Plus gives underwriters quick, easy access to the critical decision-making data on the most complex cases. It is a versatile platform that can be used in many scenarios, depending on what the underwriter is trying to achieve.

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For example, an underwriter needing to check for certain conditions before making a decision can now run a search and very quickly see what’s happening in terms of medications, labs, procedures, how many years someone has been on a treatment, frequency of drugs taken, and dosages. And this is done with great accuracy that is realized by mitigating or eliminating human errors.

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eXtract Plus was designed to be intuitive and easy to use. Access can be provided via a secure login, and training for most underwriters can take place in less than an hour via a video tutorial, with the eNoah team readily available to ease that transition.

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eNoah data are stored in the U.S. on a secure server with HIPAA-compliant and ISO-Certified protocols that protect data.

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How much underwriting time can be saved using eNoah’s products and services?

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A traditional APS review can range anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on the length of the APS. Internal studies suggest 20-50% of underwriter time is saved by eXtract Plus.

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eXtract Plus is more than a simple search engine. The software also provides underwriters with content directly from the medical records itself.

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For example, let’s say I want to know what medications a client has taken over their lifetime, or how a medication relates to lab values for certain treatments. You can see all pertinent data needed in these contexts to make a decision in a matter of minutes. And it can be customized easily to best suit the needs of each company.

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– – – – –

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Thank you, Coleen.

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All of this technology is fascinating even for an old technophobe.

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I confess that I’m coming to appreciate how its capacity to rid us of tedium empowers underwriting professionals to make the best possible decisions on every case they see.

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To read more about Hot Notes September 2020 click here.

Filling The Gap With Human Capital Getting The Most Out Of Your System

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By Ken Leibow

Published in Broker World Magazine June 2020

 

Life insurance and annuity carriers figured out a long time ago that speed to market and reducing operational costs with a combination of outsourcing and technology for new business and claims, for example using third party administrators like SE2, EXL and Infosys-McCamish, was significant in allowing for more product launches and focusing on growing sales. A hybrid of this model offered by firms like Employee Pooling and eNoah has been hugely successful in the BGA space. I had the privilege to learn more about the value proposition these firms bring to the table for a life brokerage general agency (BGA) by talking with Tom Gray, founder and Michelle Anderson, head of marketing, L&C Division, at Employee Pooling, as well as Manoj Sherman, SVP, and Stacey Paulsen, director of insurance services, at eNoah.

 

A BGA Increases Focus on Sales with a Seamless Extension of their Team Using Employee Pooling
While daily operations for most agencies follow the same basic blueprint in processing, managing, and capturing new business opportunities, there is no one-size-fits-all in meeting a company’s needs to get the job done. The reasons to right-source your agency by seeking support from an offshore firm are diverse, but the expectations are the same–to extend operating hours through the U.S. nighttime and get the job done accurately and on-time without breaking the bank.

 

Companies like Employee Pooling can certainly position an agency to bring scale and bring stability to daily operations while increasing revenue, especially during these trying times when work volume can erratically ebb and flow. Agencies are also taking advantage of outsourcing options when faced with time restraints, or they simply lack the bandwidth to handle everything piling up on their plates. Why wouldn’t you turn to a BPO who’s seen and done it all, knows the intricacies of every major technology platform like Agency Integrator, SmartOffice, OneHQ, and SureLC, who knows all the rules and nuances of dozens of carriers, and has mapped out processes for every departmental task with care and detail? This level of skill and swiftness almost can’t be matched by any new office member. The bonus is these BPOs cost about the price of an intern.

 

According to Tom Gray, founder and president of Employee Pooling, LLC (EP), in addition to removing obstacles getting in the way of sales, the most important element for establishing a successful relationship with his customers is trust. “We treat every task that we do as if it were our own, whether it’s seeing an agent appointment through or handling comprehensive case management and commission build outs, we take ownership of the task at hand.” The EP team is literally woven into the fabric of a customer’s operations, and because they already know every component of the software technology that’s used in our industry, along with processes and best practices for every agency department from agent appointments, new business and commissions to inforce policy management, onboarding is swift and seamless. Gray adds that the customer relationship reaches a mutually meaningful level when EP earns their trust by assuming full responsibility for the tasks at hand.

 

In addition to onboarding customers who are looking to maximize their software performance or get more out of their current workforce, EP has taken on countless cases of “What now?” situations from customers who are faced with an unexpected circumstance that could significantly impact the overall flow of operations and their livelihood.

 

“These immediate employee departures can impact a company overnight,” says Gray, “And even the most dialed-in companies are not equipped to handle the workflow, do not know the ins and outs of software platforms like Agency Integrator, SmartOffice, OneHQ, or SureLC—or worse, they do not know the details of what’s involved in the process of that particular position that is suddenly vacant.” A recent example of the latter occurred when an EP customer suddenly and tragically lost their one and only case manager. They were at a complete loss and needed a case manager to step in overnight. EP was able to escalate from providing basic support to assuming all new business responsibilities in an instant.

 

Imagine having to step in and fill that role overnight…but EP rises and shines day in day out because of their expertise in every major technology platform, best in class processes, 24-hour service, and their customers’ trust.

 

BGAs Faced with Operational Challenges like COVID-19 are Using eNoah
The learning curve to onboard new talent is long, and finding experienced talent is not easy. It’s an extremely competitive space and with each BGA’s unique culture, finding the right person can be challenging not to mention costly. To add to the learning curve, the diversification of products coupled with state and federal regulations and the carrier’s own interpretation of compliance and the requirements that go along with them, have created a spiderweb of different processes. All which the BGA space has to consume and assist their advisors with. This role often falls on case management to be the “expert” for not only their advisors, but internally within their organization. They are also often involved in pre-sale activities to ensure paperwork and compliance is handled properly before the application hits their desk. eNoah has been successful in helping their BGA customers take on certain tasks so they can prioritize what is most important for their internal team members to focus on.

 

eNoah’s contingency plan ensures there is always an additional resource who knows your business and it’s needs. “We have resources ready with little to no onboarding to support our BGA customers. This also served us well with the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Because of our proactive service model, we were able to support our customers during a transition to work-from-home without a drop in quality or time service,” says Stacey Paulsen, director of insurance services at eNoah.

 

In this “want it now” environment, providing consistent and timely customer service is table stakes. The ultimate challenge is how one maintains time service commitments with excellent quality, all while still being fiscally responsible. eNoah helps juggle these three pain points for their BGA partners by utilizing industry experts who are knowledgeable in all areas of the life of an application while bringing cost savings. eNoah uses a blended approach with a Stateside account manager who has over 20 years of experience in the BGA space. They understand and appreciate the unique differences each BGA brings to the table and work with them to create their own customized onboarding process to make it as seamless as possible.

 

“We want to be an extension of your office, supporting your culture and contributing to your goals and mission statement,’” Paulson stated. “It simply cannot be a one-size-fits- all approach. I love developing strategic partnerships with our BGA customers and truly understanding where they are today and where they want to go. We can help whether that is with a specific need, such as application scrub and entry into your AMS, to full end to end case management and beyond. We customize and support to your unique needs with a delivery team who has over 25 years of experience in the insurance services industry.”

 

Unique Projects for IMOs/FMOs/BGAs
I have been directly or indirectly working on some unique projects to help solve pain-points for IMOs, FMOs and BGAs. As a co-chair of the ACORD Life Inforce Product Working Group, I am helping build out standards for messaging life inforce policies like pre-lapse notifications, policy owner service change requests, term conversions, and inforce illustrations just to name a few. One of the popular inforce policy management platforms is offered by Proformex. As great as the system is in managing an agent’s book of business and discovering new sales opportunities, the critical fuel to function is “data” that gets inputted into the system manually and/or through a data feed. I learned that ePooling plays a key role working with BGAs to manage that data and get it into the inforce policy management system. Another unique project is around commission accounting. The commission accounting systems out in the market today are focused on the BGA commission workflow. These vendors have not directly addressed the needs of commission management for an IMO or FMO. eNoah, with a combination of technology developed internally coupled with using personnel to set up contracts, commission schedules and hierarchies, has been able to remove the commission pain-points and automate what was a very manual process for IMOs and FMOs.

 

With the need for a scalable professional workforce, a BGA’s back-office is servicing agents for licensing/contracting, new business, commission accounting, inforce policy management, and sales illustrations, while also providing product and underwriting expertise. Typically, BGAs are using just a couple of solution platforms, specifically an agency management system, to manage their business. Partnering with a firm like Employee Pooling or eNoah to reduce operational costs and improve efficiencies with the integration of experienced people and faster processes while leveraging the BGAs existing technology is available today.

 

 

Corona COVID-19 Readiness at eNoah

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What is COVID-19?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a current outbreak across the globe that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV.

Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 may appear 2 to 14 days after exposure.

 

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Preventive Measures and Arrangements in our Workplace

Awareness Sessions at all eNoah Project Delivery Centres in India – Chennai, Coimbatore, and Indore

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  • Stand-up meetings, email campaigns, and information displays on screens to create awareness
  • Team members trained on the best practices to avoid contamination
  • Additional maintenance staff deputed to clean and disinfect at regular intervals

 

Regular Screenings, Medical Aids, and Surgical Masks

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  • Infrared thermometers (non-contact digital) are available to monitor the temperature and health conditions of our team members on a regular basis.
  • Staff who are coughing or sneezing will be provided with disposable masks and gloves. They may also be advised to work from home or take leave, depending on business impact.
  • Homeopathic and Ayurvedhic medicines available in all first aid kits to help boost immunity.

 

Hand Sanitizers and Raising Awareness in the Workplace

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  • Visitors encouraged to use alcohol-based (non-soapy) hand sanitizers when entering eNoah premises.
  • Posters to create awareness about corona symptoms, preventive and safety methods placed strategically across production floors and visitor areas, including reception, front desk, and security stations.
  • Helpline established and numbers displayed prominently on boards across the premises.

 

Business Continuity Plan

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eNoah is spread across 3 locations in India: two in South India (Chennai and Coimbatore) and one in North India (Indore.) eNoah has created redundancy of infrastructure and manpower across these locations to maintain business continuity in case of a disaster or pandemic scenario. Detailed scenarios with Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives are explained in the “Business Continuity Plan” document.

  • All Information Technology team members and Project Managers of BPO/KPO teams have laptops to communicate/work from anywhere.
  • When required, eNoah will provide rental laptops to staff working on sensitive projects to facilitate work from home, if needed and approved by client.Such laptops would be completely blocked from external access, as per the process requirements (ex. – blocking CD drives/USB access, Internet access, sending of emails to outside domains, secure VPN access to connect to Client environment, etc. – as per HIPAA/GLBA policy) before handing it to the user to avoid data loss.
  • eNoah advises staff to follow Indian food habits for their daily diet. Turmeric and other spices (like ginger, cardamom, cloves, etc.) boost immunity and help to prevent common cold and flu.

 

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