As a bright, modern company we like to keep up to date with the latest technology. We have recently launched a telephone interviewing service to help speed up our time to offer and our GP surgery incentive scheme has almost doubled the amount of medical reports returned to us within 10 days.

Telephone interviewing

In August, Bright Grey teamed up with Medicals Direct to launch a telephone interviewing service to gather medical evidence directly from clients as an alternative to requesting General Practitioners Reports (GPRs), as this can be time-consuming.

When a case is submitted to us, our underwriters will assess each case as to its suitability for telephone interviewing. We want to make the process as customer friendly as possible. We only allow telephone interviewing for certain medical conditions where the client will be able to provide us with the necessary information to make an accurate underwriting decision. We will only do this where a maximum of two conditions are disclosed.

Since launch, we have requested over 160 interviews. We have found that the average number of days for receiving evidence where a telephone interview is used is between 10 and 12 days whereas, a case where we have to approach the GP for evidence takes around 15 - 17 days. In addition, the level of disclosure provided by the client has meant that in over 87% of cases, the underwriter can make the decision as soon as the completed interview is received with no need to refer for further information or clarification.

We are continuing to review the process to enable us to allow more customers to have the benefit of this service.

GP surgery incentive scheme

We only request medical evidence if it’s really needed because we know that medical reports can take on average 4-6 weeks to be completed and sent back, potentially resulting in a delay in the application process. So for the cases where we do have to request a medical report we have put in place an incentive programme that encourages surgeries to return medical information by fax within 10 days – and it’s a success! The incentive has almost doubled the amount of medical reports and questionnaires being returned to us within 10 days, which in turn means quicker decisions for you and your client.