We have changed the way we collect information from the care homes, moving from a post and paper form process, to an interview over the phone undertaken by a nurse (a Tele-Interview). This has not only speeded up the process, but also provided far richer and complete information for the underwriters. So far 99% of care homes are accepting the Tele-Interview rather than the paper form. If you do come across any care homes that are hesitant, please engage with us, so we can help them overcome any of their issues.
To-date 99% of cases are being underwritten without a GPR. This is due to two factors – firstly the good information we are providing from the Tele-Interviews with the care homes, and secondly the providers opted to temporarily reduce their use of GPR’s due to the Covid pandemic and difficulty of obtaining GPRs.
We do expect that in due course the providers will start to require a few more GPRs. Certainly, if the client has yet to attend the care home, then a GPR is the obvious choice. Everyone understands the impact, and we will be working with the providers to try and minimise impact on turn-round times as we move forward.
At present our turnround time is down from an average of 8 weeks to just 12 days. (This is measured from us receiving the completed information from advisers to providing all the medical information to the providers).
A few advisers are sending completed CFQF forms to us by email. Please, if possible complete the information on the portal and submit it to us using the portal. You can still download a copy to send to other providers. Sending this information over email is not deemed secure, and this is one of the reasons we introduced the portal to remove this liability from Advisers.