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Why is the Online Application so Popular
for Texas Health Insurance
Today’s
consumer expects commerce to move at the
speed of sound or at least at the speed of a
broadband Internet connection. So many
business transactions that were once
conducted face-to-face between 8:00 a.m. and
5:00 p.m. are now being conducted by
computer 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Health insurance applications are no
exception to this trend, and the benefit to
the consumer has been significant.
The most
obvious benefit to the consumer, by
submitting health insurance applications
online, is speed. The online health
insurance application can be processed and
an underwriting decision reached in far less
time than the traditional paper
application. Previously, the traditional
paper application was completed and mailed
to the broker for review and authorization.
The broker then forwarded the application by
mail to the carrier. Once the carrier
received the application the information had
to be manually input into a database for
access by the underwriting department. The
total time from when the application was
mailed by the client and when the
information was in front of an underwriter
was between 7 and 10 business days. The
online application has reduced the amount of
time to less than 24 hours, because the
information is input by the applicant
directly into the underwriting database and
is available by the next business day to
begin the review process.
Providing
the information in a predetermined
consistent format is another significant
advantage of the online application process
as compared to the traditional paper
application. The online application is
designed to provide information in a format
that enables a more time efficient review by
underwriting personnel. The paper
application leaves the submission of the
health history completely up to the
applicant, which can result in gaps in the
applicant’s medical background or
inconsistent information. Any gap in health
history or incomplete information will
result in a delay of the review in order to
complete missing information.
The
accuracy of the application is a byproduct
of the predetermined online format. Because
health insurance carriers have spent a great
deal of resources in developing online
applications, the application process
evolves based on the applicant’s responses
to health history questions. Answers to
certain health history questions will
trigger “drill down” questions which will
allow the applicant to provide additional
information regarding treatment and
prescription usage. This type of
information was often overlooked with
traditional paper applications. The
additional information gives a much more
detailed picture of the health history,
which results in a more accurate and timely
underwriting decision.
Online
applications provide the Texas consumer with
additional payment options. Paper
applications were limited to checks, bank
draft or direct billing options due to the
security concerns with mailing credit card
authorizations. Online applications with
much higher security can now offer credit
card options to submit the initial premium
payment.
Of all of
the benefits of the online application,
security is the benefit most frequently
overlooked. Traditional applications, with
premium payments attached, were mailed to
the broker and then the carrier. The
individual’s personal information such as
Social Security number, health history and
banking information were subject to the
vagaries of the postal system. The online
applications provide a much safer
transaction and a higher level of security.
Today’s
online health insurance applications are
transmitted using 128-bit encryption, which
is the standard used on the Internet. It is
important to understand what is meant by
128-bit encryption. The 128-bit encryption
results in two secret keys to the 128th
power or two multiplied by two 128 times
over. The number of key combinations using
128-bit encryption equals 339 decillion. A
decillion is a number with 33 zeroes behind
it.
A 40-bit
encryption is much less secure than a
128-bit encryption, which was illustrated by
a French researcher who used a network of
fast workstations to crack an encrypted
message. The time required to crack the
40-bit encryption was a week, which would be
impractical given that a credit card
transaction takes only a few seconds to
transmit over the Internet. However, to
illustrate the security of a 128-bit
encryption, if we used a 56-bit encryption,
which is the next level of encryption above
a 40-bit, it would take 72 million weeks or
1.4 million years using the same method
employed by the French researcher. The
security of the transmission of sensitive
health information over the Internet far
exceeds the traditional paper application
and postal system.
As the
Texas consumer expects a higher level of
responsiveness from all aspects of the
financial services industry, online health
insurance applications will produce
underwriting decisions in hours or days
where previously the decision would have
taken weeks.
Individual - Family
Texas Health Insurance
Small Business Health
Insurance
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