Royal London has enabled customers to use an e-signature to provide medical consent in a bid to speed up the protection application process.
The insurance provider said the introduction of e-signatures to obtain consent under the Access to Medical Reports Act (AMRA) would dramatically improve turnaround times, reduce dropout rates, cut costs and save advisers time, as returning paper documents can cause delays in getting plans on risk.
Further benefits include the provision of an audit trail and improved document security.
In a trial carried out last year, 58 per cent of electronic-AMRA consent forms were returned on the same day and 92 per cent were returned within five days, in contrast to a typical turnaround time of between eight and 12 days for a paper request.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and British Medical Association (BMA) have approved the use of e-signatures and published a set of high level principles regarding their use, which has been rolled out to GP surgeries.
Under the new process, the customer returns the consent form to Royal London with an e-signature via DocuSign.
The GP receives a copy of the form with the general practitioners request.
The traditional paper process will remain an option, and the consent form will be available to download online.
Debbie Kennedy, group head of protection strategy at Royal London, said: “We’re always looking at ways to speed up the application process for advisers and their clients.
"That is why we launched an e-signatures option for Access to Medical Reports Act consent form.
“Rather than sending customers a paper copy in the post we can now send an encrypted email asking for permission to contact their GP. Once we’ve received this we’ll send it securely to their GP. This service is now available to everyone following a successful pilot.”
Alan Lakey, director at CIExpert, said: “It will make a big difference. The majority of delays I have are due to the interaction with the doctor’s surgery or other medical specialist - it can go on and on.
“This is a positive improvement and it is great Royal London are doing this. [The company] has turned itself around in recent years, and a lot of people are saying that is down to Debbie Kennedy.”
simon.allin@ft.com
