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Challenge: Driving change and speed in a divided organization
The underwriting innovation leader at a major life insurer had a bold vision: modernize outdated workflows to make underwriting faster, cheaper, and more customer‑friendly across all lines of business and distribution models. Leadership was on board, but the real challenge lay within the underwriting teams. Each product line had its own culture (some eager for change, others deeply skeptical), so a one‑size‑fits‑all approach was out of the question.
Meanwhile, applicants were losing patience with a legacy process bogged down by paramedical exams, lab work, and APS requests—steps that were slow, intrusive, and costly. The leader needed to increase policy issuance, reduce drop‑offs, and protect customer goodwill without alienating teams that valued their existing methods.
Solution: Lead with speed, adapt with empathy
Instead of forcing a rigid template, the leader launched a smarter workflow: start every case with Irix Prescription Data and Medical Data, not a paramedical exam. This gave underwriters rapid clinical insights, enabled more nuanced decisions (like understanding medication use in context), and dramatically cut APS requests.
But the real breakthrough was in change management. The leader tailored the pitch to each audience: emphasizing simplicity and speed for teams overwhelmed by complexity, and positioning Prescription + Medical Data as an additive signal—not a replacement—for teams protective of their toolkit. This empathetic framing turned resistance into engagement and moved the initiative from brainstorming to a live pilot.
What changed in the workflow:
- Old way: Paramedical exam → labs → APS (weeks of delay, high risk of abandonment)
- New way: Prescription Data + Medical Data first → instant, clinically interpreted insight → exam/APS only when truly needed (faster throughput)
Outcomes: Faster decisions, lower costs, and dramatically slashed APS orders
Providing instant access to concise, clinically interpreted health claims data let underwriters identify key conditions quickly, speed suitable approvals, and apply more nuanced judgment, especially with medication usage. With value proven, Prescription Data and Medical data became foundational across products, replacing default reliance on exams and APSs with an insight‑first approach.
