We now have a service available to new and current clients that allows them to prescreen and/or apply for group health insurance ”online.” Through this system, we email a link to your group insurance administrator that enables a connection to the online application service provider. The group administrator is provided links, usernames and passwords for each of the applicants in the group. This information is forwarded to the applicants using each applicant’s personal email account. An applicant logs on to the application service through his or her own email. If an employee does not have email or internet access, it may be possible to log on through a computer at the employer location.
The online application service allows us to select which insurers the group would like to prescreen. The system filters applications from those prospective insurers and asks the necessary underwriting and medical questions via the online portal. Upon completion of the online application, the applicant signs the application with his or her computer mouse. The information is then electronically sorted and populates the specific applications of the various insurers with whom we are attempting to prescreen.
Provided a group becomes issued and accepted, participating insurers accept online applications as final applications. Information from the application process is kept on secure computer file and can be made available for future prescreens or applications. If a group decides they want to prescreen again in the future, rather than completely start the process all over again, employees need only update their medical history since the last prescreen or application.
Benefits of Prescreening Online.
One important benefit of online prescreening is that it generally allows groups to prescreen with more insurers than they otherwise may have prescreened with had they filled out paper applications. Prescreening with several insurers using paper applications oftentimes involves filling out either generic applications or multiple applications. If an insurer returns a favorable prescreen using a “generic” or alien paper application, generally the insurer will want the group to complete new original applications to achieve final acceptance.
Also, there is a benefit from online prescreening relative to future applications. In a subsequent renewal period, all applicants who have applied in the past need only update their applications to reflect new information since the last online prescreen or online application. This helps ease the process of upon renewal as it is less labor intensive for both applicants and administrators.
Given the convenience of prescreening with multiple insurers via one online application, combined with the ease of updating applications in the future, we believe the online prescreening and application method is superior to paper applications.
Please call our office at 513-891-9888 with any questions regarding online prescreening. If you are looking at prescreening online for the first time, we recommend that you obtain preliminary group medical quotes to determine if there is any possibility of premium savings (we can provide you with a form for this purpose). If there is a significant differential between the preliminary rates and your current group rates, it may indicate the possibility that conducting an online prescreen of your group is worthwhile.