no code – InsurTech Express

The Disruptive No-Code Generation

The Disruptive No-Code Generation

When millennials first hit the job market fifteen years ago, much was made about the digital divide. The younger generation, aka digital natives, came with computer literacy that digital immigrants (older generations) had no experience with. It’s not surprising that the divide has grown. As Generation Z enters the workforce, related shifts in the sand help understand the rise of no-code culture and why it creates disruption and opportunity.

Ten years ago, the number of US students taking the Computer Science AP test was roughly 20,000 students. By 2020, this figure had more than tripled; over 70,000 high school students now take the Computer Science AP Exam. At the same time, Computer Science has emerged as a popular and competitive major at universities. Growing demand, larger departments, and mainstream acceptance. “Tech geek” was once a term of derision; in 2021 it’s often a compliment.

Even among laymen, immersion in a tech-based world means young people are accustomed to harnessing computing power across everyday activities. They have tinkered with tools. They know how to make a pivot table. Just getting through grade school required them to think in terms of inputs and outputs. Generation Z knows no world without constant connectivity, immediacy in sharing, and flexibility across platforms. In short, the 2nd-tier digital natives are here and they welcome market disruption.

Market disruptions happen when technological advances reconfigure the economics across an industry. The classic example of market disruption is ridesharing companies like Lyft and Uber: smartphone-based apps run circles around the legacy taxi system, with their human dispatchers, CB radios, and expensive fleets of vehicles. For years, rideshare market disruption dominated headlines: strikes, countries banning rideshare, taxi companies going out of business. One hundred years earlier, the same phenomenon happened between cars and horses. Livery stables were once bustling centers and hubs for travelers in every town; the stable owners felt the same way about the automobile. For them, cars were disruptive.

No-code technology is proving to be disruptive by changing the cost-structure and time investment required for programming. No-code and low-code technologies are significantly cheaper, rely less on legacy infrastructure, and require less specialized staff to maintain systems. The end result is a less expensive option of outsourced programming: a customer-facing web-based application that is delivered in a fraction of the time. Let’s also not forget that it saves on much time, money, and overall resources.

Management Research Services (MRS) is a market leader in providing no-code solutions to our partners in life and annuity. Our cloud-based solution can be customized from the ground up, with an easy-to-use interface that eliminates our clients’ needs for costly or time-consuming options. We invest in finding the brightest young programming talent so that our clients can focus on the things that they do best.

The MRS approach to customer service is that of a partner that wishes to grow with each client. We pride ourselves on rapid integration times provided with low start-up costs and minimal maintenance expenses. Our platform is cloud-hosted on Microsoft Azure and benefits our clients with an over 99% uptime. Our sophisticated rules-engine can support even the most complicated of underwriting decisions.

They say market disruption should only be feared by those who don’t participate. Let us put our technology to work for you. Embrace generational change by contacting the MRS staff about our no-code platform. Let us set you up with a demo to see how our no-code web-based application can revolutionize your business.

Contact the MRS staff here: https://managementresearchservices.com/contact.

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

qtq80-uOFEu1-696x510

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.

Covid-19 And Life Insurance

COVID-19 And Life Insurance

The pandemic is a game-changer. There’s no way around the evidence: closed schools, stock market volatility, shuttered small businesses, and a swamped healthcare system. With civil discourse at an all-time low, we might need to wait for history to decide what happened.

With every sea change comes opportunity; some industries have found a boom amidst the chaos. Courier and logistics services have experienced massive growth with online shopping and doorstep deliveries. Online education is in the midst of an unprecedented heyday. Video streaming services exploded during the initial Spring lockdowns; production teams are now scrambling to keep up with demand in a forever changed television landscape. Another pandemic-time growth industry: life insurance.

The significant rise in policies sold during 2020 is especially notable because it reverses a decade-long downturn. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of Americans holding a life-insurance policy dropped from 63% to 54%. That’s 16 million less people over ten years, even though the country’s population grew by 21 million.

Declines in the number of Americans holding a life insurance policy have been something of a mystery. Life expectancy has steadily increased, but fewer Americans were choosing to buy policies. One would reasonably assume ownership to rise among middle and lower-level earners, but that’s not what happened. Experts point to factors like declines in group policy sales, higher premiums, and more restrictions for an older population, though they don’t really explain the failure to reach younger generations.

Whatever caused the slump, it might be over. The second and third quarters of 2020 have shown sharp increases in policies sold, some months with double-digit percentile increases over 2019. Americans see that good health and a long life is no longer something we can take for granted as COVID-19 has increased our awareness of our own mortality. Daily reminders of tragic losses and spiraling infection rates have set off a round of panic-buying the country has not seen since 9/11.

A new landscape comes along with some new restrictions. Insurers cannot deny claims due to COVID-19, but many firms are restricting underwriting for certain at-risk groups. Individuals over 60 with heart or lung issues, diabetes, or obesity might encounter raised premiums or denials. For individuals over 70 options are even more restrictive.

Finding out your options has never been easier. Online marketplace applications use reflexive questioning to customize each application in a manner that satisfies underwriters. Behind the scenes, medical records are retrieved electronically allowing policy decisions in just moments. Naturally, prospective buyers like the ability to compare rates and options with such immediacy. Growth during the pandemic would have encountered bottlenecks and obstacles with the industry’s old model, which required meeting with an agent and scheduling a doctor’s appointment.

The industry’s new model relies on next-generation application and underwriting processes from firms like Management Research Services (MRS). MRS offers customized insurance underwriting solutions to support a range of insurance services. We can assist with your new business applications and underwriting processes through our proprietary technology and no-code platforms. Together, the MRS no-code technology and services represent a one-stop solution that reduces customer acquisition costs and saves time and overall resources for insurance carriers.

No one can say if or when the pandemic will end. Virus experts contend COVID-19 might never go away, but vaccines and treatments will turn it into something much easier for all of us to live with. As things change, MRS’s flexible system can and will change with it. Our technology is built to allow for progressively more complex underwriting and scripting scenarios. For more information on how MRS is helping insurance companies look toward a better tomorrow, visit their website at www.managementresearchservices.com .

To read more articles related to MRS and Life Insurance click here: https://managementresearchservices.com/mrs-blogs

What Is The Latest Technical Jargon For Life Insurtech Point-Of-Sale And Underwriting Solutions?

Broker World qtq80-lRAwlO-768x533

Published in BrokerWorld Magazine November 2020

By Ken Leibow

Have you started reading a book and then come across a word that you do not know the meaning of like, for example, “patulous?” It can be frustrating to look it up and, in some cases, you still may not grasp the full meaning. Software vendors today are marketing their solutions using words like “API,” “No Code,” “Low Code,” and “AI.” You are not exactly sure what they mean especially for life insurance technology. My objective is to help you not only understand the definition of these terms, but also understand how they are being applied to the life insurance point-of-sale tools and underwriting solutions used today by carriers, agencies and agents.

API
An acronym you often hear these days in the technology world is “API.” This stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Have you ever used PayPal to pay for something you are purchasing online directly within an eCommerce store like BestBuy.com? After you add your item to the virtual shopping cart and go to check-out, you see a payment option button for PayPal. When the user clicks the “Pay with PayPal” button, the application sends an “order” request to the PayPal API, specifying the amount owed and other important details. Then, a pop-up authenticates the user and confirms their purchase. Finally, if the PayPal process is successful, the API sends confirmation of payment back to the application thereby finalizing the payment of the purchased item. In the life insurance world, there are many examples of an API being utilized. If you are a BGA using an agency management system (AMS) to process new business life cases, you may see functionality that allows you to schedule an exam or order other requirements from a paramed vendor like ExamOne. The agency management system is using an API from the paramed vendor to facilitate the requirement order. It is seamless to the user, while the API is doing the work behind the scenes to execute the requirement order.

“Low Code” and “No Code”
Two other popular terms you see today are “Low Code” and “No Code.” I am going to give you the most common business definition as it is being marketed for insurtech applications. Let’s start with “No Code”: A good example in life insurance technology is a “No Code” life insurance eApp platform. When a carrier adds its products to an eApp platform, there are three critical items that need to be setup:

Life insurance product rules;
Questions asked to complete the life insurance application; and,
Mapping the data to all the State-specific forms.

When eApp was first developed decades ago, setting up the three items above required a software developer to program code, then extensive quality assurance testing had to be done, and finally you had to wait for a major release before the carrier’s products were in production ready for agents to submit life business on the eApp platform. This typically was a long process to set up. As the years went by, less programming (hard-coded) was required because of the configuration tools that were developed to help make changes to the software application. Now fast forward to 2020. A No-Code eApp platform means that setting up the life insurance product rules, the questions, and the forms, is completely self-service and does not even need to be administered by a technical person. So, when you see software advertised as “No Code” it usually means you can set it up and configure it on your own.

Low Code is a visual approach to software development. Low Code abstracts and automates every step of the application lifecycle to enable rapid delivery of a variety of software solutions. It breaks the traditional silos of business and IT to promote continuous collaboration. When a software vendor is enhancing their system with new functionality instead of programming raw code, they use a graphic interface drawing workflow and moving objects around. If you are buying software from a vendor who is advertising Low Code, then it simply means speed and ease in releasing enhancements, fixes, and new functionality. In life Insurtech today you will see Low Code for eApp, eDelivery, and Underwriting Workbenches for carriers just to name a few types of Low-Code platforms that are available.

AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is sprayed everywhere in vendor solutions and processes. There are an enormous amount of ways that AI is being used in our everyday lives. The obvious example is Alexa from Amazon or Siri from Apple. You can ask Siri to play a specific song, or turn on the lights in your house, or schedule a calendar appointment. But it can do more sophisticated tasks like knowing where you are with your GPS and telling you that you will be late for your appointment because your location is too far away for example. Artificial intelligence is based on the principle that human intelligence can be defined in a way that a machine can easily mimic and execute tasks, from the simplest to those that are even more complex. The goals of artificial intelligence include learning, reasoning, and perception. AI programs require training—meaning the more data you feed it, the more intelligent it becomes. When we see AI being mentioned in the life insurance new business process or in insurtech applications, what do they really mean? A great example is eNoah’s eXtract Plus solution. It uses AI to take a 200 page Attending Physician Statement (APS) and make it a searchable document (extracting vitals, medications and key information) for a life underwriter. eXtract Plus can also render medical records and lab documents with hyperlinks and cover pages. This information can be utilized to create APS summaries or validate that APS summaries are complete and accurate.

Point-of-Sale and Underwriting Solutions
iPipeline offers a transformational Resonant^® Point-of-Sale (POS) decision solution that makes the customer experience quick and easy—like buying auto insurance. This enables a carrier and distributor to sell profitable life insurance protection to middle market consumers. Unlike today’s traditional process of quoting teaser rates only to find out the final premium after underwriting, Resonant POS decisioning changes the dynamic so that underwriting is completed at the point of sale. Answers to medical questions are combined with data received from industry leading evidence and predictive model vendors to provide instant decisions with the final premium needed to complete the sale in one sitting. Resonant integrates with iPipeline’s Quote, iGO^® e-Application, and DocFast^® e-Delivery automated solutions to manage and control the entire underwriting and new business process from simplified issue to fully underwritten complex cases and other lines of business.

Management Research Services, Inc. (MRS) has developed new tools on its no-code sales and new business platform that focus on increasing the speed of issuing insurance policies. MRS has enhanced APS retrieval by integrating with electronic health record (EHR) data partners. Working with the insurance carrier, MRS will integrate an EHR to make an automated decision and issue the insurance policy at the point of sale (similar to how a Rx or MIB integration is used). Additionally, MRS is reimaging the case management and underwriter workbench by providing better tools for the insurance carrier to order requirements. This means that instead of reactively ordering requirements that may add days/weeks to the issuance timeline, the insurance carrier can use MRS’s highly configurable rules engine to write rules that will anticipate ordering requirements needed during the point-of-sale process. This will provide busy underwriters with all the information needed to review and issue the policy, resulting in a much faster and more efficient issuance.

The two solution providers mentioned above are leveraging these technologies (APIs, No Code, Low Code, and/or AI) in their platforms that carriers, agencies and agents use every day. You can see this is much more than connecting systems, it is an integrated process. The value of the entire new business flow, from applying for life insurance to passing into the carrier fulfillment process, is seamless, intelligent, and fast because of these underlying technologies. Each new innovative deployment helps agents provide a better experience for their customers and, as a result, place more business.

Management Research Services Continues To Advance And Excel!

MRS+In+2020

Management Research Services (MRS) has been able to stay on a positive path of growth and prosperity in 2020. We offer an unmatched customer service experience that keeps us at the forefront with our clients and the insurance industry. With quick response times and dedicated staff members, we always put our clients and partners first. As a core value of the company, customer service is embedded in the culture at MRS. Elco Mutual Life and Annuity had this to say about the customer service experience MRS provided to them. “In short, MRS has been great. We see tasks quickly going from start to finish with plenty of communication in-between. I would say they do an excellent job of identifying potential issues, offering suggestions, and keeping us updated as we progress. Communication in meetings is clear and concise, and emails are bountiful with information, but not overwhelming. Testing has gone smoothly too. When we identify an issue or decide to adjust, they have made the necessary changes promptly to keep the project on schedule. Overall, the project has been a very positive experience, and we are pleased with their performance.” This type of service cannot be done without the dedication of our employees. When an employee gets hired by MRS, it is not just an apply and start type of hiring experience. MRS puts an emphasis and trust in their employees to be the experts in the field and the interview process guides the applicants to be confident, secure, and ready to go the moment they join the team. Since the pandemic of 2020 started, many businesses and industries have had to adjust. Plans for growth and expansion have had to be halted as the world reacts to life during this unprecedented time. MRS has not had to stop operations or plans for growth and expansion, in fact, MRS has been able to significantly grow from 80 to 120 employees since March.

How has MRS been able thrive in 2020 during the pandemic?

The first and biggest reason was MRS’s ability to allow employees to work from home. Prior to the pandemic 50% of the staff was already working from home and processes were already in place to allow for the organization to transfer to a virtual/home office environment quickly. The next reason was the innovative vision and foresight of the tech team. They were a key player in transforming from an in person to virtual working environment. They were able to get the rest of the MRS employees transferred over to virtual offices in under a week and without interruption to the daily workflow. The tech team acted instantly and MRS adapted quickly. Another key reason that has allowed MRS to thrive is the software technology currently in place within the company. This technology that MRS created allowed to hire rapidly and train new employees quickly. The last reason MRS has thrived during the pandemic is that the company has been able to be flexible and adapt. From client transactions to customer service inquiries, MRS developed solutions that were quick, easy, and efficient. These transformations allowed MRS to keep growing and advancing, and they are now currently over 120 total employees. With expansion comes growth and MRS has been able to do both in 2020.

At MRS, we help clients transform change into a competitive advantage.

MRS provides a high-end technology product to life, health, and annuity insurance industries. In today’s world where “the only thing constant is change,” that original vision has been expanded to include more services and technology capabilities designed to help clients adapt quickly and in a cost-effective way. MRS has invested heavily in our technology platform to create a foundation for the next revolution in life insurance. MRS’s No-Code platform gives you all the tools needed to build a highly secure, complex application that efficiently collects voice and electronic data without writing a single line of code. The result is a vastly reduced time to market with no initial or ongoing maintenance costs making the total cost of ownership substantially lower than status quo solutions. Our platform’s ability to support powerful reflexive logic makes the MRS rules engine extremely efficient in collecting all information needed to make a point-of-sale decision. The capabilities and flexibility of our platform allow customers to use the MRS technology platform as their single solution or as a tool to support and enhance current technology solutions they already have in place. Please visit us at www.managementresearchservices.com or contact us by email at sales@mrsreps.com to learn more!

Management Research Services announces “New” Self-Configure Model!

Self+Configure+press+release+

MRS Self-Configure Platform Press Release

Management Research Services (MRS) is extremely excited to announce our newest form of an e-App platform, our Self-Configure model! Over the course of the last few months, MRS has been consistently working to make a process that allows insurers to optimize their internal resources to support field operations. Now, this process has become a reality due to MRS’ no-code, easily configurable, and cloud-based platform. The insurance companies’ internal teams can oversee the configuration requirements and implementation daily and guide their own field operations and sales teams. This new service model not only saves time but also saves almost 35% of the total unit cost resulting in increased profitability margins for the insurer. MRS is also assisting this transformation with training, guidance, and ongoing supervision. We pride ourselves on our quality service standards that allow our customers to become experts in their field. We believe that we are successful when our clients are successful. You could be next when it comes to digital transformation and development!

GG Oncel, our Head of Customer Strategy and Growth stated “We are very excited about this new chapter as part of our no-code and easily configurable genius platform. This new service option will help insurance companies that prefer to utilize their internal resources as part of the processes and make it their own solution. We are still providing continued supervision via our 100% US-based Customer Success teams giving ‘peace of mind’ to our clients at the same time.”